


Snake Pit

by VicVivi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dimension Travel, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-02-21 14:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18704599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VicVivi/pseuds/VicVivi
Summary: “He was summoned as someone who ‘wants to be here’ and ‘is capable of defeating’ you, my Lord.” – “That does not mean he has to.” – Desperate, the Order has reached across dimensions for help against Lord Voldemort. However, with Harry Potter involved things don't go as planned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is complete at XX chapters - it's more fun for me if I don't tell you how many. I'll post as I edit and get feedback from my betas Slytherclaw and KaGoGoGadgetMe.  
> Enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

_The first time Harry killed someone as an auror was just a few years after he defeated Voldemort. He stared transfixed as the blood ran down the man’s throat. Little rivulets of red, a stark contrast against rapidly paling skin. He watched expressive brown eyes struggling against death and losing, growing more vacant by the second._

“ _Potter,” his boss voice broke him from his thoughts._

“ _Sir?” he replied._

“ _There is nothing that can be done for him.”_

“ _I know,” he said tonelessly. A cutting curse to the neck and no immediate treatment, of course there was nothing that could be done for him. The man was 'lucky' to still be alive._

“ _Then come here and help take the rest back to HQ.”_

“ _Yes, sir,” Harry said as he watched the man take his final breath._ _This was t_ _he first time Harry had killed a man directly and he didn't even know his name. He was just some_ _Death Eater_ _thug that had escaped the aurors until today. The rest would be facing trials soon, more people that would never hurt anyone’s loved ones again. Tearing his gaze from the cooling corpse, Harry went over to his comrades, where they stood around the captured criminals._

“ _Thomson, Farley, you secure the scene with me,” his boss said, “the rest of you take these men to HQ holding cells.”_

“ _Yes, sir,” they replied in unison._

* * *

Elsewhere and else when, in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Minerva McGonagall Transfiguration Mistress and seasoned combatant was hurrying down a corridor. She was trying to catch up to Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts and leader of the Order of the Phoenix.

“Are you sure this is the right course of action?” Minerva asked slightly out of breath. She had asked this question a thousand times and still was not sure of the answer.

“My dear, you know as well as I do that the alternatives are no better,” Albus replied gravely, not slowing down his brisk walk. “Would you prefer another raid and more dead? More innocents drawn into this war? Alastor is talking of attacking Diagon Alley next, you know, and many are agreeing.”

She could imagine who was agreeing, the Weasley's for example and Hermione Granger. Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley had been the first to die in this war, even if they hadn't known it at the time. Their friends and family were the most determined to do something to finally stop Voldemort, no matter the cost. Others had lost loved ones, but by then it had been open warfare. They weren't quite as bitter and their loved ones hadn't been quite as young and innocent as those two.

“They can't be serious!” Minerva exclaimed anyway, “The other targets were at least Death Eater gathering points.” She preferred to think of it that way. Calling their targets Death Eater homes would mean acknowledging that they were no different than the Death Eaters themselves had been, before they became the respectable side of things.

“Oh, he only wants to attack aurors. He thinks such a high profile target will draw out Voldemort. He is probably correct in that assumption,” Albus commented lightly, his hard eyes belying the tone of his voice.

“We are talking about Moody here, right? “Constant vigilance”, “Mad-eye” Moody?” Minerva asked, “He has to know that innocents are sure to get involved if we attack Diagon. No matter how many aurors are stationed there.”

“Of course he knows,” Albus sighed.

Minerva nodded grimly, not really having expected any other answer.

“It will not be as bad as you think, Minerva. The ritual is designed to summon someone who fits into this dimension. Who wants to be here. They might be a bit disoriented in the beginning, but it will all work out in the end,” Albus tried to reassure her with the words he had repeated hundreds of times over the last few weeks.

“I hope you are right, Albus. I hope you are right.”

The rest of the way to the Hogwarts ritual room was passed in silence. Minerva and Albus were some of the last to arrive, the rest of the Order, or what remained of it, was already gathered. Most of the week long preparations for the ritual had gone into readying this room. With the dawn of wands, rituals had mostly gone out of fashion so the room had lain unused for quite some time.

The room had to undergone three different purification processes to prevent interference with this delicate ritual and a salt circle had been drawn on the ground. That was where the person they summoned was supposed to appear. Contrary to Muggle beliefs, it would in no way contain the person they summoned, it only was a marker and focus for the magic. The Order members gathered in three concentric circles, the further in front you were the better your skill at magic and, coincidentally in these times of war, at combat.

Minerva herself was positioned in the innermost circle. You didn't become a Transfiguration Mistress by being bad at magic after all. Directly across from her stood Albus who was going to lead the ritual, the rest of them would only lend the strength to cross dimensions.

Albus gave a sharp nod once everyone was in position. That was their signal to feed magic to the salt circle. Concentrating hard, she pointed her wand at the circle willing the magic to go there. She barely heard Albus chanting, giving the raw magic form, telling it what to do. Slowly, the pressure built around them until with a whoosh all magic disappeared.

They waited in silence for it to return. Hopefully, it would bring someone along that could help them with their Dark Lord problem. The minutes tickled by and only Albus' raised hand prevented people from talking and disrupting the ritual.

After what felt like an eternity, magic began building again. This time it condensed as a mist in the salt circle which rapidly shaped into a human. That much was clear. However, before anyone could get a better look, the magic dispersed and a man stood facing Minerva. She barely brought up her wand in time to shield herself against a rapidly fired, wide area blasting curse. And even then the shield bucked under the onslaught pushing her into the person behind her. Not all were as lucky as her though. However, she had little time to waste as the next second the new arrival was firing spells left, right and center, turning as he cast, ducking, dodging and twirling out of the way of their spells, making it difficult to hit him without risking hitting a friend.

* * *

It had been a while since Harry last had needed to take orders out in the field, nowadays he gave them. His experience during the war and his status as the defeater of Lord Voldemort had seen him rise quickly in the auror ranks. By now only Head Auror Roberts was directly above him in the chain of command, when he retired in a few years, Harry would most likely become one of the youngest Head Aurors in history.

A malicious blue spell whizzed right past him, only to splash harmlessly against a store front behind him. Dolohov, for all the fear he had inspired as a Death Eater, wasn't very good at aiming over his shoulder.

“Now!” Harry bellowed, well accustomed to giving orders in full sprint.

Instead of a verbal response several spells shot at Dolohov from all sides aiming to incapacitate him. Harry cursed as the man either evaded or deflected them all. They were getting too close to Diagon Alley, where the people didn't have the common sense to get out of the way of an auror operation well before it got too close to them.

Getting desperate, Harry silently cast a wide area cutting curse at Dolohov's back. He knew he was going to pay for that if Roberts got wind of it – “You can't endanger passersby like that Potter!” as if he couldn't judge the risk – but for now he didn't care. His team was out of the way, running out of their ambush points to join Harry in his pursual. It was rare for Harry to be the one chasing the suspect himself instead of directing from a good vantage point, but some people required the formidable reputation of the Defeater of Voldemort to come out of hiding.

Dammit! The bastard noticed the sneak attack and cast a shield in time. Harry cast again using a stronger and more deadly version of the same spell, before drawing up his own shield to avoid getting hurt by the rebounding cutter. This time his curse went right through Dolohov's shield, shattering it and the man's spine behind it. Only his immediate collapse prevented the twice rebounded, first curse from taking off his head. Too bad, Harry felt the man deserved death. Not that Azkaban was better, now that the dementors were back, but Harry would have liked to see the Death Eater dead. Slowing down he shot an 'expelliarmus’ at the prone form, just as he felt a rather violent tug in his midsection, not unlike a portkey.

'Does Dolohov have an accomplice we didn't know about?' Harry thought as he was pulled away from the scene. He left behind a silent street, both his team and, from behind reinforced windows, Knockturn Alley's patrons and residents staring. Dolohov's wand clattered to the ground only a meter behind where he had disappeared from, a clear indicator that Harry Potter had not intended to leave.

Harry, for his part, was mentally preparing himself to attack the moment this especially long winded portkey let him out of its grasp. Really, whoever made this didn't know what they were doing. No better not think on that, if that was the case it might just kill him. Consequently, the moment Harry's feet slammed into the ground he cast a wide blasting spell and immediately followed up with a shield, that would withstand physical objects and magic equally. Using the moments time the surprise attack gave him he took in his surroundings.

No, this couldn't be. Absolutely not! His eyes narrowed. Anyone who played this kind of trick was definitely an enemy. And with no comrades around… Harry smirked. Time to take off the kiddy gloves.

Spells flew from his wand in rapid succession, bone breaking, flesh rotting, blood clotting, flaying, he didn't care, he cast them all. The cutting curse he had used last on Dolohov probably was the most benign of the lot. A vindictive smile curled around his lips every time a cry told him he had hit someone. His opponents confusion only lasted for a few moments, then they were firing back. Though clearly they were hampered by not wanting to hurt each other. Tough luck.

Despite getting in a few good hits early on, spells were now raining on him from all sides. It was only a matter of time before they overwhelmed him. Well, he was going to make it as painful for them as possible. A fireball unexpectedly broke through his shield and burned his side right side. Together with all the other injuries he sustained, it made his next wand movement just a little bit slower so that his shield was back up only after he took a spell to the neck. The low level cutting curse didn't behead him, but if he didn't heal himself, at least a little, he was going to suffocate or bleed out soon. Whichever came first.

Luckily for him, auror training involved field healing, so he could close up the wound enough for it to not kill him. Though no more verbal casting in this battle. Unluckily for him, the time he needed to do that was enough for his attackers to break though his shield again and stun him. At least he was sure he killed a few of the bastards.

* * *

Minerva looked at the carnage around her horrified. Whatever they had expected it wasn't this. Bill Weasley, Dedalus Diggle and Adele Fawley all lay dead. Several others had sustained heavy injuries, she doubted Jonas Fawley was ever going to walk without a prosthesis again. No one had escaped injury, merely the strangers opening blast had seen to that.

Albus and Kingsley, both only with minor cuts and bruises, went over to the stunned stranger to get a closer look. An 'expelliarmus' and 'incarcerous' made him as harmless as possible for the moment.

“He’s an auror,” Kingsley said abruptly pointing to a badge on his clothes, “no wonder he didn't take well to the situation.”

Several Order members gave him disbelieving looks at that understatement. Albus though had bent down and was brushing aside the strangers bangs, revealing a very faded lightning bolt scar.

“He's Harry Potter,” he said quietly. Despite that everyone heard.

“What?” Molly Weasley breathed.

“He's too old,” Kingsley frowned, “Harry would be eighteen now, he looks over twenty.”

“Not our Harry,” Albus corrected in a tired voice, “some other dimension's Harry Potter. He might be older there. Maybe their time runs differently, or the ritual can reach across time as well. We can't know.”

“Well, we'll have to heal him up and ask him who he is, won't we?” Nymphadora Tonks said resolutely. She looked at the man. “I doubt he'll wake without some healing or be willing to speak with us even if he does.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 for you to enjoy.  
> Also: I added a disclaimer to chapter 1. I won't be repeating it every chapter. I hope people weren't double alerted.

_Aurors were swarming around the area Harry had disappeared from. The entire section where Knockturn Alley met Diagon Alley was roped off, much to the normal shoppers and residents dismay. Several aurors and countless civilians had witnessed the national hero’s disappearance and no one could shed any light on what had happened to Harry. There was no portkey trace, no indication of disapparition, no hint of invisibility spells, potions or objects, nothing. That was why Hermione was here now,_ _n_ _ot that she wouldn’t have come anyway with her best friend missin_ _g._ _Ron_ _was here as well_ _, though he had quit the aurors and was working with_ _George_ _now. Despite that, her husband was always one of the best informed about various plots concerning Harry,_ _because_ _n_ _obody watched their words in George’s shop. So he was telling the aurors about anything he could think of that may constitute threat to Harry. But from what Ron had told her, sentiment towards Harry was positive at the moment. People were looking forward to when Harry became Head Auror believing it would make their lives safer._

 _But that was_ _why Ron was here,_ _not why Hermione was here. Yes she would have come for moral support, but she and her colleges had a job to do. The aurors could not find out what had whisked_ _Harry_ _away so they called in the unspeakables. That that meant they had_ _another_ _prominent war-hero investigating_ _her_ _best friend’s disappearance was just coincidental, Hermione was sure. Anyway it was time to investigate the magical residue around the scene of Harry’s disappearance. Harry would count on them to find out where he was,_ _she was not going to disappoint him._

* * *

When Harry awoke, it was to the feeling of cuffs around his arms and ankles. The pleasantly soft bed beneath him couldn't compensate for the discomfort those caused on principle alone, even though they were well padded to not cause undue pain. He could be dead instead of bound, he supposed, things could be worse. Come to think of it, considering his last memories were of fighting some group that looked like people he knew, alive and dead, he was rather surprised he was alive. Maybe they wanted to interrogate him? Yea, probably.

Well, he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing. Time to open his eyes. To his surprise he clearly recognized the ceiling of the Hogwarts hospital wing. That meant his contact lenses were on. How odd. Kind of sad, that he could recognize the hospital wing ceiling, but that didn't change the fact. Why on earth would he be in Hogwarts? Had he been rescued? But then he would have been taken to St. Mungo's. He hadn't been to Hogwarts since the reopening ceremony after the repairs were completed.

“Ah, I see you are awake,” came Madam Pomfrey's voice, “I'm sorry about the bindings, but with the welcome you gave us, we felt it was necessary.”

Harry turned his head to glare at the woman. Yup, definitely her and definitely the Hogwarts hospital wing. Before Harry could decide if he wanted to reply to that or not, the Hospital wing doors opened to let Dumbledore, Kingsley and Snape in. Two of which should be dead. Narrowing his eyes, he waited for them to speak.

“I'm sorry about the bindings,” Dumbledore said repeating Pomfrey's words, “but we felt it was necessary. You gave us quite the fight.”

Harry just rolled his eyes and continued to glare at the quartet making Snape sneer at him. He wasn't saying anything until he deemed it necessary.

“You are probably confused, so let me clear up a few things for you,” Dumbledore said pleasantly.

Harry waited his expression not chaining from a glare. Pomfrey shifted a little, but the other three remained stoic. Once it was clear that Harry wouldn't be responding Dumbledore continued, “You see, we summoned you here from another dimension, because we are in desperate need of your help.”

At that Harry couldn't help himself, he snorted, then winced in pain as the air passed through his throat abruptly. A hand was jerked back by the chains holding him when he automatically attempted to reach for his neck.

“You sustained a heavy injury to the neck,” Pomfrey told him in response to his gesture, “It is the only one I haven't been able to heal completely so far. While your emergency healing probably saved your life, it didn't make my job any easier. I'd advise against attempting to speak or doing anything else that might strain your throat.”

Harry nodded, to show he understood. Once he got away form these impostors he would definitely get himself completely checked over.

“I'm not surprised you don't believe us,” Dumbledore said gently, “I'm afraid, however, we didn't quite trust you not to attack us the minute you awoke if we left you your wand. You are an auror, are you not?”

Again Harry nodded. Really, everyone knew that, but if they insisted on this dimension travel nonsense…

“Excellent. Now I assume you are Harry Potter in your dimension?” Nod and eye roll, really all this was common knowledge, though they were putting on a good show. Especially that Snape's sneer got worse with each of Harry's responses was a nice touch.

Dumbledore clearly saw that Harry was far from convinced by their act. Sighing, he pulled out his wand. With a flick of it a fully fledged phoenix patronus came to life and soared out of the hospital wing. Harry's eyes widened, for the first time he began to doubt his assessment that all this was some elaborate hoax. Casting a patronus non-verbally without dementors around was about as difficult as producing one in close proximity to a dementor verbally. Since very few wizards could cast the spell successfully at all, the number that could do that was even lower. And Harry knew that Dumbledore was capable of the feat. Much more convincing than that little tidbit, was the shape though. Two patronuses that looked exactly the same were incredibly rare. What was the likelihood that an impostor would have the exact same patronus as Dumbledore? A sense of dread began to fill him.

“I take it you recognize my patronus?” Dumbledore asked not having missed Harry's reaction. A curt nod was his answer.

“Would you recognize any other patronus?” he continued.

Harry used the hand bound to the bedside facing his interrogators to awkwardly point at Snape and Kingsley. He was kind of glad that he didn't have to nod again, it was making him feel a bit silly.

“If you would gentlemen,” Dumbledore told them. Snape went first.

“Expecto patronum!”

A doe burst from his wand. The exact same one that had led him to the Sword of Gryffindor during the horcrux hunt.

“Expecto patronum,” intoned Kingsley. Again, the patronus took a familiar form. The Lynx that he had first seen during the war but still was in use as a messenger when Kingsley was feeling lazy. Now one impostor having the same patronus as their real counterpart was possible, if unlikely. Three of them matching up was next to impossible. It appeared these people might be telling the truth. The sense of dread tippled.

'You can't be sure,' he told himself. He didn't really believe it though.

Just as the patronuses dispersed McGonagall entered the room, followed closely by Mrs. Weasley. Harry promptly zeroed in on the very familiar wand in McGonagall's hand.

“It appears your presence is not quite as necessary as I originally thought,” Dumbledore told the new arrivals. “Apparently, Mr. Potter here is quite familiar not only with the theory behind patronuses but also with the shape mine, Kingsley's and Severus' take. As a token of goodwill we will still be returning his wand.”

“Do you think that is wise?” Mrs. Weasley almost growled. Dumbledore just raised an eyebrow at her.

“Fine, if he kills any more of my sons I'm holding you responsible,” she snapped, eyes flashing. Dumbledore nodded gravely.

“If we release you and return your wand will you be peaceful?” Dumbledore asked seriously.

Harry nodded solemnly, desperately trying to convey his sincerity. At least for the moment, if he found out they tricked him he was pulling no stops. But if they were really tricking him they would hardly give him back his wand, would they?

'You don't have full proof yet,' he told himself to combat his rising panic.

None of them looked convinced, they looked ready to curse him the moment he made a wrong move. Madam Pomfrey gave a resigned sigh. She twirled her wand at his restrains and mumbled something he couldn't make out. With a click the shackles fell away. At the same time McGonagall took a few steps forward a pinched look of distaste on her face. She got exactly close enough that he could reach for his wand if he sat up.

Carefully flexing his ankles and wrists, he did so reaching for the wand. He couldn't help the sigh of contentment that escaped him once he was finally reunited with the wand. The burning in his throat that accompanied the sound had him grimacing. He had the strong feeling he wasn't going to like the details about what was going on with his throat.

Carefully he pointed the wand upwards so that the tip was just below the height of his chin and held it away from himself at reading distance. Seconds later the date and time appeared above the wand. Harry didn't miss the flinches of those surrounding him, however, he was fixated on what the spell was showing him. November 1st 1998, 11:45 am. It should be sometime after July 17th 2004, 4:00 pm, that was when they had ambushed Dolohov.

'Don't panic, it won't help,' he repeated to himself.

So, apparently he had time-traveled at the very least. But considering Snape and Dumbledore appeared to be alive, it seemed he might really have changed dimensions. Hadn't Dumbledore said they summoned him? It would make sense to do so on All Hallows Eve, that's when the barrier between living and dead was at its thinnest. It would stand to reason that the barrier between dimensions would be as well. Evidently he would have to try to find a way back. No need to panic.

Slowly he lowered his wand onto his lap vainly hoping they hadn't seen how his hands were shaking. Then he turned himself on the bed to face Dumbledore and his companions. Remembering the pain only the smallest sounds caused his throat he refrained from speaking. Instead he arched an eyebrow, hoping it would prompt Dumbledore to explain.

“You believe us now?” the old man asked.

There was no need to specify about what so Harry dipped his head in response.

“We've summoned you to help us kill You-Know-Who,” Mrs. Weasley said impatiently.

Harry just stared at all of them in disbelief. They had summoned him from his home so that he could solve their problems? He had just barely escaped with his life defeating the man once. And he had been one of the lucky ones if you counted surviving friends and loved ones as lucky. He was not repeating the experience. What if the Elder Wand hadn't changed allegiances? What if he hadn't been able to come back to life after Voldemort killed him? No way was he going to go against that man again. Not with his much improved skills. Not ever. No, he wouldn't. He would make them send him back. They would send him back. He would make sure of it. There was no other option. He would make them.

“I understand that this is a lot to take in,” - A lot to take in! - “but we wouldn't have summoned you if the situation wasn't dire.” - Dire? Dire! Their situation was dire? - “From the parameters of the ritual, you should be capable of defeating Tom Riddle,” - No, no, no, he was not going to do it again. Not the loss and pain again. - “and you should want to be here even if you don't know it yet.” Want to be here? Really? Want to be here?

°Want to be here?° he finally hissed. °You have the gall to tell me I want to be here? You will send me back right this –° In his panic he wasn't fast enough to avoid the stunner from Kingsley's wand. Everything went black.

“Kingsley,” Minerva reprimanded.

“You heard Minerva, he's a parselmouth. You-Know-Who is the only known parselmouth. What if our ritual got us another You-Know-Who? He certainly is powerful enough,” Kingsley argued.

“Harry Potter was a parselmouth, too,” she protested.

“Minerva, you can't be sure he is Potter. He could have lied,” Severus interjected.

“And if he didn't?” Minerva asked. “Do you think it's anymore likely he will help us now?”

“I say we just deal with him and take on You-Know-Who ourselves,” Molly threw in, “No matter if he is Harry Potter or You-Know-Who, parseltongue is the sign of a dark wizard. We don't need anymore powerful dark wizards out and about.”

“Molly, everyone, please calm down,” Albus interrupted, “let us have lunch and clear our heads. We will discuss this more later. Poppy could you please place Mr. Potter in a more comfortable position.”

Things were definitely not going as he had hoped.

* * *

Later that afternoon not all Order members left the emergency meeting happy. Harry Potter – not that the man they summoned deserved to be called by the same name as their boy hero – was not going to be punished for killing three of their own and harming many more. Oh sure they hadn't decided anything yet, but Dumbledore wanted to sway the man to their side. They had summoned him as somebody capable of defeating Voldemort, he probably was their best chance to kill the Dark Lord. Given enough time most would come around to see the Headmaster's point. Considering they had essentially kidnapped Potter it was no surprise that he retaliated as hard as he could. Especially Moody wholeheartedly agreed with Potter's reaction, but he wasn't the only one, they were living during a war. However, at the moment not everyone was convinced.

Moody's agreement with Potter's methods didn't stop him from suggesting executing a raid on Diagon Alley anyway much to Minerva's and several others displeasure. Once it was brought up again, Percy Weasley was happy to suggest the use of summoned Potter as bait for Voldemort during the raid. It said a lot about how unhappy the Order members were with the situation, that it took half an hour to shoot that suggestion down completely. It took another hour for the waters to have calmed enough that Dumbledore felt he could declare the meeting over without someone doing something rash. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

One of those especially angered by the outcome of the meeting was currently sneaking down to Snape’s store rooms. Not the student supply cabinet, the other store rooms where he kept the more rare and dangerous ingredients. This person knew exactly what they wanted: To get rid of Potter permanently. And they knew exactly how to do it.

As Hogwarts was a school, the warding on the supply cabinet was keyed to age. Anyone under the age of twenty-five would be kept out, preventing students from accessing it by a wide margin. Luckily for the would be thief, since wards really weren't their specialty, there was absolutely nothing to prevent anyone over that age from getting inside.

Confident that no one would be coming this way any time soon the person slipped inside, eyes rapidly searching for the correct vial. It was turned so the label was facing the wall, but the thief would never forget how Pomfrey had extracted the venom from the basilisk tooth embedded in poor Harry's arm. Of all the wounds the boy had carried away, the venom had been what killed him. What had killed their Harry would definitely kill this Potter, of that the would be murderer was sure.

Gently the vial was levitated into a conjured pouch. Even more carefully than before the thief snuck to the hospital wing. Pomfrey was at dinner and the more heavily injured Order members were at the other end of the hospital wing, each within their own privacy ward. So no one noticed them walk straight up to Potter's bed eyes flickering from bed to bed to ensure that it stayed that way. Until they fell on Potter's bedside-table. Then a look of rage could be seen on their face. Pomfrey had placed Potter's wand on it. This man who had murdered their own, who was a parselmouth, had free access to his wand. Did that woman have no sense? Well, once they were done here Potter would never be using it again anyway.

“Stupefy, silencio,” whispered the would be assassin, wand pointed at Potter. He was already unconscious, but better safe than sorry. A few steps and the assailant stood at Potters bed manhandling him into a half-sitting position with his head tilted backward. A nifty little spell, learned from Pomfrey, kept Potter's mouth open. Basilisk venom killed on contact, despite that, they were going to make sure nothing went wrong. Not after they had gotten this far.

A practiced swish and flick, and the vial was levitating in front of them, the conjured pouch gone. Another routine swish uncorked it. The assistant directed the vial with their wand to float over to Potter's mouth and tilted it slowly. Just to make sure, the entire contents were poured into his mouth. Seeing his body beginning to convulse silently even past the stunning spell they considered their work done. A few more wand movements and the empty vial sat closed on the bedside table. The others would know what killed him anyway. Without further thought, the assassin turned and left Potter to his fate.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it isn't spoilery anymore:  
> "English/quotes"  
> 'thoughts/quotes'  
> °parseltongue°
> 
> Enjoy!

_Harry hated hospitals. He hated waking up in them with no memory of having gotten himself there even more. Which was exactly the situation he found himself in at that moment: waking up in a hospital he suspected was St. Mungo's. From what he remembered he had collapsed in pain at the annual Ministry Summer Party. Why? Harry tried to focus. Fuzzily he remembered drinking something. Wine?_

“ _Good morning, Mr. Potter,” Healer Rogers greeted him, “defied death again I see.”_

“ _Huh?”_

“ _By all accounts you should be dead.”_

“ _Why?” Harry asked cautiously._

“ _You were attacked with manticore venom. Someone really wanted you dead.”_

“ _So they are so afraid of me now that they can't face me, but try to poison me?” Harry demanded crabbily._

“ _Possibly,” Rogers replied his lips quirking up in amusement._

“ _So, does anyone know who did it? Or why I am still alive for that matter?”_

“ _You have to ask your colleagues the first question. As for the second question… Have you ever been immunized against any potent venom?”_

_Good, that sounded as if the perpetrator had not been found yet. That way he still had a chance to worm his way into being there when they caught him._

“ _Not that I know of,” Harry frowned in response to Rogers’ question._

“ _Well then have you ever been poisoned before?” Rogers continued to probe._

“ _No – wait, yes,” but he really didn't want to tell Rogers that story – it involved Ginny._

“ _By what?” the Healer asked patiently used to Harry's evasive ways._

“ _I was bitten. By a basilisk,” Harry mumbled._

“ _C-could you repeat that?” a white faced Rogers stuttered._

“ _I was bitten by a basilisk,” Harry said more loudly this time. ‘Please just let this be done with.’_

“ _When?” Rogers was flabbergasted._

“ _In my second year at Hogwarts. Fawkes – Dumbledore's phoenix – healed me,” Harry admitted. Ginny hadn’t carried away any physical damage – that time._

“ _Well,” Rogers said regaining his composure, “I rather doubt you will have to worry about being poisoned ever again. I dare say the only reason you ended up here was because while basilisk venom may be the most poisonous substance known to us, courtesy of its adaptive abilities, manticore venom is not that far behind.”_

“ _Does that mean I can leave now?” Harry asked hopefully. Maybe Ron and Hermione would have time to distract him from Ginny. Or wallow in misery with him. Either worked._

“ _No, Mr. Potter, you will be staying for overnight observation.”_

_Dammit. Now he was alone with his thoughts._

_It took Harry’s team a few weeks of almost 24-7 work to track down who had tried to kill Harry. No one wanted a repeat of what had happened to Ginny. Harry wasn’t the only one for whom the attack on him had triggered bad memories. But the hard work paid off._ _W_ _hile_ _Blaise Zabini_ _hadn't taken to his mother's method of acquiring wealth,_ _he_ _had learned her craft well. Most likely Harry had stepped on his toes once too often during his auror duties. Combine that with an old grudge and voila you had one willing assassin. Harry didn't really care about Zabini's reasons all that much,_ _Ron kept track of that for him_ _. What he did care about was ensuring that he got his just deserts for trying to poison him. He couldn't manage a death during arrest, so a life long Azkaban prison sentence would have to do. People shouldn’t believe it was possible to get away with attempting to kill him or his loved ones._

* * *

The second time Harry woke in the Hogwarts hospital wing wasn't nearly as pleasant as the first time. He was brutally ripped from his magically induced sleep by a vaguely familiar searing pain. It was mostly centered around his mouth and throat, but his entire body was convulsing in pain. He couldn't help himself. He screamed, thrashed around, anything to relieve the pain only a little. To his utter horror no sound came from his mouth. He caught a glimpse of red hair, before pain blackened his vision once more.

When Harry came to the third time his throat was on fire, every muscle in his body was stiff and sore and he felt slightly nauseous. With his eyes closed he lay there waiting for the nausea to subside, listening to the breathing of the other patients. Abruptly, he remembered why he felt so horrible, his eyes flew open and he sat up. A wave of dizziness overcame him and his stomach rolled, with shaking hands he groped for his wand on the bedside-table. Next to it was a hazard substance vial.

‘Evidence,’ his muddled mind thought, so he pocketed it.

Okay. Next. Harry definitely wasn’t safe with these people, so he needed to leave. He clutched his wand tighter. What did he know? Nothing. No idea what this world was like. Nowhere was safe. So, castle. Better the enemy you know – kinda. Where could he hide and think? Somewhere that wasn’t on the Marauder's Map. What did that leave? Room of Requirement. No. Too many people knew of it. Not accessible was not enough. He didn’t want to be found. So. Chamber of Secrets.

Decision made he began casting: scent suppression, silencing, disillusionment. Thank Merlin Hermione had insisted he drill his entire repertoire silently.

“If you are going to be aurors, you are going to have all the advantages I can give you,” her voice, scolding him and Ron, echoed in his thoughts.

Time to leave. On shaky legs he got up. Breathe in. Breathe out slowly. Center yourself. A little more confident he walked toward the door. Barely five steps from the bed, Pomfrey's door flew open. Dammit. Monitoring wards. Trusting his spells to do their job he ran for the door as fast as his shaky legs allowed.

Pomfrey seeing his bed empty rushed back to her office, the commotion finally waking some of the other patients. Caution thrown in the wind, Harry opened the hospital wing doors with magic. The only thing that mattered was getting away. Once he was through the doors he took a heartbeat to lock them with the strongest spell he could muster in a hurry. It was only a mid level spell, but hopefully it would slow pursual down a little. He continued as fast as he could manage, ruthlessly suppressing the nausea and ignoring his unsteady limbs. He thanked his lucky stars that Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was only a floor above the hospital wing and in a similar part of the castle. On the way he occasionally dogged an Order member, but from their relaxed stance it seemed an alarm hadn’t been sounded just yet. His frantic running only slowed down when he neared the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Myrtle wasn't in her bathroom when he got there, which made things all the easier for him. Not wanting to repeat his earlier mistake he carefully checked the area around the entrance for wards. There was nothing. Well, considering only parselmouths could open the entrance it probably shouldn't have surprised him.

°Open,° he told the sink voice shaking from exertion, but pleased to note that speaking parseltongue didn't make his throat hurt any worse. Not caring about the grime he hopped down the pipe calling a °close° as he went.

“Attention!” he heard McGonagall's voice sound through the castle, just before the entrance rumbled closed behind him cutting off all sound.

He landed with a crunch, wand drawn. At first glance the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was exactly the same as he remembered it from his second year. Small animal skeletons on the ground, cave in with a hole to the other side and, most importantly, completely deserted. Deciding that he was safe enough for the moment Harry sank down against the wall and relaxed his muscles. Promptly his hands began shaking again and the burning in his throat became much more insistent. Thankfully, the nausea did not make a return. Waiting for the shaking to subside a little he looked around again. At second glance the hole looked larger than he remembered it. Large enough to fit an adult easily. Absentmindedly, he wondered if things had played out the same in this dimension as they had in his. He frowned when he realized that he had neither seen nor heard of the Harry Potter in this dimension. One would think with his outward similarity someone might have mentioned something. This world's Harry was the only person that was likely to find him down here. But still, he'd take his chances with a younger version of himself over the entire Order any day.

Walking through the large hole in the carve in, he made his way to the main chamber. Past the large abandoned basilisk skin and over more bones of tiny animals up to the door with the entwined snakes. It felt like deja-vu, like when he went to save Ginny. Hoping that he wouldn't find a living and aggressive basilisk inside he gripped his wand tighter and told the door to open.

The chamber was empty. Except for all the statues of course, but Harry knew from Ron and Hermione that the basilisk carcass was still there in his dimension. Wary, now that the probability of encountering a living basilisk had risen, he walked towards the Slytherin statue at the other end of the chamber. He could see a few splatters of old blood, brownish and dried, on Slytherin's left foot. There were no other indicators that a fight had taken place here. Obviously, even if this dimension's Harry had come down here, things had gone differently. At the very least someone had removed the basilisk carcass.

°Voldemort? Voldemort? Is that you?° a voice came from within the statue behind him. Dammit. Not removed, the basilisk was alive. Stupid, stupid Gryffindor. He wasn't in any shape to fight now, especially not something as spell resistant as a basilisk. Hopefully it wouldn't turn aggressive.

°I'm not him,° he replied cautiously and for good measure, °I don't want to hurt you.°

A deep rumbling noise came from above. Harry squeezed his eyes shut tight, a spell to conjure a physical shield between him and the basilisk firmly in mind. He could hear the gigantic snake slither out of the statue. Harry did nothing. As long as it didn't attack him he would not attempt to fight the basilisk, he was not suicidal.

°You are not Voldemort,° the basilisk finally agreed. °You smell like my venom. Why is that?°

‘Could it be…?’ Harry wondered. °I might have been poisoned with your venom.°

°Really? When?°

°Eleven years ago,° Harry replied doing the math quickly.

°No, I wouldn't smell that. And I would remember you. That was before I lost a piece of my tooth to the brat.°

Lost a piece of it's tooth to the brat? To Harry from this dimension maybe? Wait, then the people here might have basilisk venom. Luckily, he had the vial. Which he had touched with his bare hands. Even though he knew it was a vial for hazardous substances. Even though he knew that it had probably contained whatever had been given to him. Even though he knew it was evidence. Stupid, stupid Gryffindor. Where was his Auror training? Well too late now. At least he now knew touching it wasn't going to hurt him. He thrust a hand into his robes and blindly fumbled for the vial. Uncorking it with a flick of his wand he held it out in front of him.

°Does this smell of your venom, too?° he asked the basilisk.

A sound of something heavy moving against stone.

Then, °Yes.°

Harry re-corked the vial and returned it to his robes. If he was still alive later then he would examine it properly.

°Then I got poisoned with your venom today.°

°How did you live?° the basilisk definitely sounded curious now. Good, maybe he could convince it that he'd make a bad dinner.

°I was immunized with a different basilisk bite eleven years ago. A phoenix saved me then,° he explained.

°Hmm. You're interesting. Who are you? Why are you here?°

°I'm Harry Potter and I'm hiding from those that tried to poison me. But with you here I guess I'll have to look for a different hiding place.°

°Why?° the basilisk sounded sad.

°I can't stay here if I have to keep my eyes closed around you all the time. And I don't want you to have to hide all the time.°

°But if you have my venom in you my gaze won't kill you,° it explained excitedly.

°The venom wasn't fresh…°

°I could bite you again. You said you were immune,° the basilisk's voice was full of hope.

Harry really did need a place to stay. And he didn’t think that he could find anywhere else today. The Order was on alert now and he still wasn’t very steady. Never mind that his entire body hurt and his throat was throbbing in sync with his heart beat. But he didn’t know if he could survive another dose of basilisk venom today.

While Harry was still thinking the basilisk had decided that silence meant consent and struck forward without warning. The bite to his shoulder was surprisingly gentle, but that did nothing to stop the searing pain the venom caused.

‘This isn’t getting any better with repetition,’ Harry thought just as he blacked out for the third time that day, falling onto the basilisk's scaly body.

The first thing he heard when he regained consciousness was a hissed °sorry° that reminded him not to open his eyes.

°Whatever,° he said once the pain was manageable, not willing to provoke a snake that could eat him in one bite. °So I can look into your eyes now?°

°Yes. But only my eyes. It won't work for other basilisks,° it warned.

°Okay.°

Gathering is Gryffindor courage he slowly opened his eyes only to stare into yellow ones right in front of him.

°It worked,° he said half in wonder.

°Of course,° the snake sounded smug. °You'll stay?°

°For now,° Harry agreed, then after a moment added, °What's your name?°

°Angel,° she, for the basilisk didn't have the red plume characteristic of males, replied.

'Someone had a sense of humor,' Harry thought. Aloud he said, °That's a nice name.°

°Thank you,° pleasure was clear in Angel's tone.

* * *

While Harry got settled with Angel in the Chamber of Secrets, upstairs in the school above chaos and panic reigned. When Poppy had run to her office she headed straight for the floo and to the Headmaster's office. She only had to wait for a minute, for Albus to come out in hastily pulled on robes.

“What happened?” he demanded.

“Potter is gone!” she replied making wild gestures with her hands, “His bed is empty.”

“Return to the hospital wing immediately. I will be there shortly.”

Calming slightly at Albus’ authoritative tone Poppy flooed back to her office. First Albus sent a patronus to Minerva telling her to be prepared for him to come to her office. Then, in rapid succession, further patronuses were dispatched to wake Severus, Kingsley, Alastor, Tonks and Julius, and tell them to meet him in the hospital wing.

Without wasting any further time, he flooed to Minerva's office to fill her in on the Potter's disappearance and have her mobilize the rest of the Order. From there he flooed straight to the hospital wing to investigate.

* * *

When Minerva entered the Great Hall with a grim expression on her face, Potter's assailant was prepared to act surprised. Just because others might also be glad Potter was dead, did not mean they would agree with their course of action. It was better if no one found out who was responsible. What was not expected, was the genuine surprise the assailant felt at Minerva's words.

“Potter has disappeared from his bed. We are going to mount a search,” she said.

How could that have happened? Basilisk venom was guaranteed death if you didn't administer phoenix tears. Potter had not gotten those, they were sure of it. Had he seen them? Would he be getting revenge? On them? On those they cared about?

Alongside the assailant’s panic pandemonium broke out. Only a quarter of the Order were present at the moment but it was enough to make quite the ruckus. A bang from Minerva's wand called everyone's attention back to her.

“As I said we're going to mount a search. Now, first…” she proceeded to ensure that all members that weren't present were alerted and requested to come to the Great Hall. Then she organized people into groups of three to methodically search the castle. Despite the number of people involved in the search it was going to take a long time to find Potter, if they managed at all. The castle held many secrets and if they were unlucky Potter might know something about the castle they did not.

There was no question in the assailant’s mind that they needed to find Potter first. They needed to make sure that he could not tattle. Though it was difficult to envision how they would achieve that. If they didn't manage to catch him unawares, they were under no illusions who would come out of a duel on top. Not after they had seen his deadly force when in action. They might be no slouch but he was a trained auror who had probably seen a war himself.

* * *

Severus for his part was annoyed. Potter just had to go and make things more complicated. The investigation of Potter's hospital bed proved fruitless. The only clue was the tripped ward, but that couldn't provide them with any more information than they already had: Potter was gone. Julius Lewis, the wards expert, was planning to do some more extensive tests but he wasn’t hopeful. As an auror, they expected Potter to know every trick in the book to avoid detection. The way he had fought upon arrival clearly showed that he was a force to be reckoned with, someone like that did not forget basic precautions. And that was all that would have been necessary, here with how saturated with magic Hogwarts was.

To make things even worse the other patients couldn't tell them much about how Potter had escaped either. He had decided to simply leave through the doors the same as he had just crossed the ward line, damn the consequences. The only surprise was that he had taken the time to slow down the less injured Order members from pursuing him by locking the doors behind him.

Those weren't the only things to make Severus wonder though, the entire situation did. Potter didn't seem like someone to run from confrontations. So why had he left? Surely Shacklebolt stunning him wasn't enough reason for him to run. No either something much worse had to have happened or he had some agenda they didn't know about. Severus was betting on the second, but desperately hoping for the first. He didn't want to be the person to have to tell the Dark Lord that the dimension traveler had some unknown agenda. He had already put off reporting a day to avoid suspicion from the Order as to why he was reporting to the Dark Lord outside schedule. Luckily, later that today he had his weekly meeting with the Dark Lord.

“My Lord,” Severus bowed to the shadow ruler of magical Britain.

“Report,” the Dark Lord demanded.

“My Lord, yesterday Dumbledore and the Order conducted the ritual to summon someone capable of defeating you from a different dimension. The summonee appears to be an older version of Harry Potter who didn’t seem too happy at being summoned. When he arrived he attacked immediately, killing three and injuring many more before the Order managed to subdue him. In the process his throat was injured grievously so speaking seems to cause him pain even after treatment. That way the Order found out that,” Severus hesitated for a moment, “he is a parselmouth, like this dimensions Harry Potter.” And hadn't that been a shock when the news broke. “Shacklebolt stunned him for possessing the ability. He was left with Pomfrey in the hospital wing, but this morning he was found gone. The Order hasn’t decided yet if they simply want to dispose of him or still try to convince him to help them, once they manage to track him down again. They weren’t very impressed with Potter. I think that’s why plans for a Diagon Alley attack came up again, too. No decision have been made, yet, but I think this mess has made the execution of an attack more likely than ever.”

Severus shuddered as he recounted the details of the Order's discussion to the Dark Lord. Someone had come up with the brilliant plan to use Potter as a bait for the Dark Lord, willing or not, while attacking the aurors in Diagon. Or even worse, to just outright kill the man for the offense of reacting badly to being summoned away from his home dimension. Both suggestions had been shot down, but not nearly fast enough for Severus not to see how many agreed with the expressed sentiments. Such hypocrites the lot.

“Tell me more about Potter's disappearance,” Voldemort demanded filing away the information on the Diagon Alley raid. Except increasing the number of auror's on emergency standby there wasn’t much that could be done about that until he had more information.

“There isn't much to tell, my Lord,” Severus complied. “Albus, Arthur Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, Lewis, Shacklebolt and me investigated his bed after he disappeared. As far as we could tell he woke up from Shacklebolt's stunner, got up and left. Didn’t even bother to try and deactivate the monitoring wards.”

“Any indicator as to why he left?” Voldemort probed.

“None, my lord. It’s strange. He didn’t seem the type that runs to me,” Severus replied.

“Where you present when he spoke parseltongue?” Voldemort asked.

“Yes, I can show you if you like,” Severus preempted the Dark Lord's most likely next demand. Voldemort gave a curt nod meeting Severus eyes. Contrary to popular belief his Lord was capable of being a gentle legilimens so Severus felt nothing as he let the man into his mind.

“So, we have a powerful wizard of unknown motives, capable of defeating me running around the countryside? The only up side being that he clearly is no fan of the Order?” Severus did not like the dangerous glint in his Lord’s eyes when he said that.

“The boundary line wards haven’t been tripped, yet, so he is in the castle,” he hastened to reassure the powerful wizard.

“Inform me immediately should that change,” Voldemort waved his hand in dismissal, “Tell the Order I’m still focused on sussing out their secondary hideouts. That should keep them on their toes. Oh, and get me the name of the ritual the Order used.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Severus bowed, glad to have gotten through this conversation uncursed.

* * *

°Angel, you are going to have to let me go at some point,° Harry argued.

°They are still looking for you. It isn't safe.°

°I need food,° he tried. That was the absolute minimum actually. So far he had used some of the rocks from the cave-in to transfigure himself a bed frame and a chair, and Angel had offered some feathers and other fluffy things to transfigure into a mattress and upholstery. So he could sit comfortably and had managed to sleep a few more hours, but that wasn't a viable solution for food and transfigurations weren't permanent. He also really needed to get his throat looked at. A shower and clean clothes would also be nice.

°I can hunt for you.°

°Humans can't eat raw food.°

°Can't you make fire? Voldemort could make fire. Cassius could make fire. Devon could -°

°Fine,° Harry interrupted before Angel could list every parselmouth she had ever met, °I'll wait a while.°

°Yes,° the gigantic snake hissed in delight, °I'll go find food.°

Harry strongly suspected she ignored the second part of his sentence completely.

°Don't forget that humans eat smaller meals!° he shouted after her retreating shape. Resigned to his fate for the moment, Harry debated how he could best use 'aguamenti' to get himself showered.

Angel returned after a fairly short time proving that she had been paying attention to his words. She had a very dead rabbit in her mouth that was probably full of venom. In the mean time Harry had showered, washed and mended his clothes and prepared a fireplace.

°Here you go,° Angel declared cheerfully, placing the rabbit in front of Harry.

°Thank you,° he replied. After a moment's thought he asked, °Is there venom in this?°

°Yes,° Angel replied sheepishly, °I can’t turn it off completely. But I kept it as low as I could!°

°Okay,° Harry sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to another round of pain. But food should help him get on his feet again more quickly. Hopefully the venom wouldn't set him back too much. If it did, he would have to be more insistent with Angel about leaving the Chamber. For now he would try not to provoke her.

Procrastinating the inevitable, he slowly began to prepare the rabbit. He was by no means an expert, but camping during the horcrux hunt had given him the drive to learn about survival in the wild – just in case. Around this time in his world that part of his life had just been over. Harry had chosen to not fast track into the auror program, but to go back to Hogwarts when it reopened in September. Classes had all been a mix of two years, dependent on how much attendance you had during the year under Voldemort. The only exception was Defense. Participation in the battle meant an automatic NEWT in Defense, though for an actual NEWT grade you still had to sit a test. So all the auror hopefuls, provided they were of age, attended a fast track training program instead of regular classes.

Ron, Hermione and everyone else was probably out of their mind with worry for him. Maybe the were working on a solution to get him home right at this moment. They had always come through for him. If not for his two best friends he’s be long dead by now. Was it the same for their counterparts here? What were Ron, Hermione and Harry of this world doing? Were Ginny, Neville and Luna with them? Obviously the war wasn’t over, but he couldn't remember if anyone of their counterparts had been among the people that summoned him. Which reminded him…

°Angel, earlier you said you lost a piece of your tooth to a brat. Can you tell me about it? All of it? The reason why the brat was here and how you lost a piece of your tooth?° Harry asked making a guess as to the circumstances.

°Yes,° Angel agreed and immediately launched into the story, °Voldemort was back visiting me, you know. Though he smelled of himself and female all the time. Looked like a female, too. I hadn't seen him in very long, but it was him. He would come down and talk ever so often, and sometimes he would tell me to go petrify one of the little ones in the castle. Said he didn't want to upset me by making me kill one of them again. I was very sad when that happened the first time. Salazar always said to protect the little humans.

°Then one day, he came and said he had to leave again soon. But first he had to get rid of the female looks he said. Said that she was a necessary sacrifice. Erika explained that to me after Salazar died, so I understood. He told me that someone might follow him to try to stop him getting rid of the female looks. I should hide in my nest and only come out when he called for help. He had this silly pass code you know “Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts' four”. I never understood that. Of course Salazar was the greatest, why did he need to keep saying it?

°Voldemort was right. The brat followed him down. Screamed at Voldemort a lot and I think Voldemort laughed at him. But then, he called for my help with that silly pass code. So I came out to see what was going on. Somehow, Voldemort left the female body on the ground and was starting to look like himself again. He had a new wand, too. The little brat was shouting at him. I couldn't understand what he was saying. Anyway, Voldemort asked me to kill him. He couldn't do much magic at the time. Never really explained why, only that it would go away after he got rid of the female looks.

°So I attacked. It took a while, the brat was fast, but I got him. Bit him in his arm. Only, because he was moving so fast I went to deep. My tooth got stuck. I had to break it off. It killed the brat though and Voldemort fixed my tooth for me. Because he could do magic again without the female looks. Then he told me he had to leave and I couldn't come. He didn't have anywhere for me to go. Said I should hide in my nest and only come out for him.

°So I went into my nest. I heard more humans outside for a short while. And one of those annoying phoenixes. I was glad I was in my nest when it came. They left, too. Then no one came until you. A new parselmouth. I always come out for parselmouths.°

°Thank you,° Harry said already thinking on what he had heard. It seemed the events of his second year had played out differently in this dimension. He felt a pang over the fact that Ginny was dead in this dimension, too, but to his surprise he didn't feel sad over his counterpart's death. He had long since given up feeling to torn up about stranger’s deaths, but Ginny was different and he had thought that maybe it would be different with someone who was essentially him as well. But the reality was: He was relieved. This meant unless he was very unlucky nobody but Voldemort could access his current hiding place. So he was safe from the Order and, considering he was in Order headquarters, very likely Voldemort, too.

He would get back on his feet here in the Chamber and try to get some information on the outside world. Then he would break into the Hogwarts library and try to find ways to get back. Provided the food Angel got him was edible, if not he would need a new plan. He looked at his cooked rabbit. A quick flick of his wand cooled the meat and he cautiously took a bite, chewed and swallowed. It tingled in his mouth, burned like hell in his throat and seemed fine in his stomach. Drinking some conjured water helped soothe his throat, but there was no way he would be able to eat in any comfort like this.

Harry would have to see to his throat before food. A heating charm on the rabbit prevented it from going cold. Suppressing a sigh, as it was likely to only cause more pain, he summoned another rock from the cave in. This time it was transfigured into a large mirror he could prop across from himself. Frustratingly, all he could see from the outside was a long scar across his throat. A clear indicator of a failed beheading, but well healed. Pomfrey had done a good job. Whatever was causing him trouble had to be on the inside. He opened his mouth to attempt to see into throat next. All he could see was some redness, but all of his mouth and throat looked reddish. With limited healing experience he couldn't even tell if the red in his throat was supposed to be like that or not.

Finally giving up, he cast a simple healing spell at his throat meant to knit together wounds. Maybe it would help. Carefully, he took a small bite of the rabbit, chewed a long time and swallowed. Thankfully, there was only a short pain when the food passed the wounded area, it would do for now. Hopefully, the pain was due to the wound and not Angela's venom so it would get better over time.


	4. Chapter 4

_Three_ _days_ _. Three grueling days of non-stop_ _work_ _and they still hadn’t found out where Harry had gone. For what felt like the millionth time Hermione apparated to the site of Harry’s disappearance. It was still under constant auror watch, the residents of Knockturn were not happy that their street was blocked off. As every previous time, she had a new list of spells to try, to see if she could tease out what had happened to Harry. The options ranged from spontaneously turned into a demiguise,_ _to_ _sent to the moon, to sucked into another dimension. She wasn’t even convinced all these spells were real anymore but they were getting desperate. The magical imprint of whatever had happened to Harry was fading. They didn’t have long anymore before_ _it would be gone completely, making more tests impossible_ _. If that happened Hermione would have to find a new way to contribute to the search for Harry._ _There was n_ _o way she was going to sit around while everyone else was looking for him. She would take time off work if she had to. Ron could probably use another hand_ _searching Harry’s possible haunts in the UK._ _But for now she would do her job and hope a solution would present itself._

_The auror guarding the scene from the Diagon entrance recognized Hermione on sight. Despite that he took a moment to check her ministry badge for authenticity. Hermione approved, it was way too easy in their world to steal someone’s appearance. Consulting her list of spells she raised her wand and started casting. Spell after spell, as carefully as possible to avoid disrupting the remaining magical residue. She was almost at the end or her list when to her utter surprise the last spell she cast bathed the entire street in a soft blue light._

“ _Mrs. Weasley-Granger, what was that?” one of the aurors asked._

“ _That was a positive reaction for ‘summoned to an alternate universe’,” Hermione replied. The woman across from her raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘pull the other one, lady’._

“ _No_ _really_ _. According to this spell Harry was summoned to an alternate universe,” she confirmed as much to herself as to the skeptical auror, “Let me recast the spell.”_

_The auror took a step back and gestured for Hermione to continue. Concentrating she cast again. Again, a soft blue light illuminated the entire street._

“ _So you really mean to tell me that our national hero was summoned to an alternate universe?” the woman repeated._

“ _Yes. The ritual I was testing for is supposed to summon somebody that meets the requirements of the summoner. Plus there must be the possibility for the summonee to be at least equally happy at their destination as in their home universe. That’s to prevent them being too pissed off when they get to the alternate universe I think,” Hermione said still a bit baffled herself._

“ _This isn’t about Ginny Weasley is it?” a different auror asked._

“ _Why would it be about Ginny?” Hermione asked confused._

“ _Because he isn’t over her death?” the man pressed._

“ _What? No. That’s been four years! Just because he isn’t dating doesn’t mean he ‘cries himself to sleep at night’ like Skeeter is claiming,” she said._

“ _He’s been more merciless since that remaining cell of Death Eater’s killed her,” the female auror pointed out._

“ _Well, that incident drove home that just because the war is over, it doesn’t mean we are as safe as we hoped to be. But I can assure you that while we all still miss her, Harry was not summoned away because he still feels pain over her death,” Hermione said with more confidence than she felt. Had Harry been less happy here than he had let on? Was he still not coping with Ginny’s death? No. She as one of his best friends would have noticed. Or Ron would have. Harry was harder now, Ginny’s death had hit them all badly for being so long after the war was over, but they had moved on with their lives._ _Even though_ _t_ _hey still missed her sometimes they weren’t living their life in mourning._

“ _If you say so,” the male auror said doubt dripping from every syllable._

* * *

Minerva wasn’t having a good week. After the catastrophe that was the summoning of Harry Potter and his subsequent fleeing from the hospital wing, they had absolutely no success in finding him. They had turned over every stone twice but Potter stayed hidden. Of course there were places in the castle none of them knew of, or none of them could access like the Chamber of Secrets. However, being a parselmouth hadn’t saved their Harry from the basilisk, so there was no reason to assume this Potter would do better or even be stupid enough to try hiding there. The only thing they knew for sure was that Potter hadn’t left the castle, since the boundary alarms hadn’t sounded.

What Minerva didn't know was that her week was about to get worse. Poppy was running low on one of the more complex medical potions so Severus had decided to set aside some time to brew it. As dragon’s blood was a required ingredient, he had needed access to the more rare ingredients and discovered the basilisk venom missing. By chance Minerva was in the staff room, now functioning as a contact area with the Order leadership, when Snape stormed in to report the theft.

“Someone stole the basilisk venom,” he said without preamble, interrupting a heated discussion on whether they should raid Diagon Alley or not.

“What?” asked Daedalus Diggle the first to gather his wits somewhat.

“Someone stole the vial of basilisk venom from the potions stores,” Severus repeated impatiently.

That gave even the most groggy person in the room time to digest the statement and start talking. For a few minutes no one could be understood as everyone tried to be heard over everyone else. Getting impatient Alastor fired a bang from his wand. Silence descended once more.

“How much venom was that?” he asked.

“Three milliliters,” Severus replied promptly.

“And how much do you need to harm someone?”

Severus rolled his eyes, his expression clearly telling everyone how stupid of a question he considered that.

“A drop ingested is enough to kill even a giant.”

This time the silence came on it's own. The white faces clearly showed the horror everyone felt at that thought. Minerva buried her head in her hands. This day couldn't get any worse.

“We will interrogate every single person in this castle. We can't afford to assume it was Potter. How could he know we have it? It’s not like he was killed by a basilisk,” Alastor decided, getting nods of agreement all around, “Do you have veritaserum on hand, Severus?”

“No. I'm in the process of brewing a new batch, but it still has a week of brewing and a month of maturing to go.”

“We'll have to do without then,” Alastor decided grimly.

“There are truth potions other than veritaserum. Truth potions I have in stock. They just aren't as strong as veritaserum,” Severus sneered angrily.

“Enough to interrogate everyone?” Minerva asked hopefully. Anything that increased the chances of finding the culprit was good in her books. If no one in the Order had taken the venom then it had to be with Potter. She wasn't sure if that option was better or worse than the alternative.

“Yes, enough for everyone,” the, ‘do you think I would have suggested it otherwise,’ went unspoken, but not unheard.

Ten hours later, a truly grueling interrogation marathon behind them they had no answers. Most of the Order was taken from the list of suspects by the virtue of not having known about the basilisk venom in the first place. Several carefully worded questions under truth serum made the chances that they were being lied to very low. The small group of people that knew about the venom included those that had been involved in the aftermath of that horrible incident five years ago, and the more adept potioneers. Of those everyone looked equally suspect.

Each and every one of them had said more or less the same thing when questioned. Yes, they had known of the dangerous substance. No, they didn't know where it was. Yes, they had thought of making use of it – but that didn't mean they had taken it.

There were some variations. Daniel Fox went on about what kind of fascinating experiments were possible with the venom, when asked if he had thought of making use of it. All the while he insisted that if they had left the venom in his care this wouldn't have happened. When the word 'danger' fell in conjunction with 'known of' in a sloppily worded question, Hermione Granger told them about the extensive research she had done on basilisks after her second year. Ronald Weasley actually went so far as to admit to wanting to use it on some of the more dangerous Death Eaters on occasion. But that was neither here nor there as he was too young for the age barrier around the storage room. His mother went off on a tangent about how worried she was for her family with such a danger in the castle.

All in all, no one admitted to having taken the venom and a lot of people had a possible motive. Truth serums were fallible, so it was hard to rule out any of the people who had known of its presence in the castle.

* * *

Later that day Severus stood in front of the Dark Lord, still fuming over the theft of the valuable and deadly venom.

“There are no new plans for attacks, my Lord. The Order mostly has been busy trying to find Potter, without success. The friends of our Potter have been especially diligent in their search but he is not on the Weasley's map of Hogwarts. Since he still is on the castle grounds he must know a hiding place that is not on it.”

“That is not what has you so agitated though?” the Dark Lord asked reading Severus bad mood.

“The basilisk venom that remained from our Potter’s death has been stolen. The Order has a hand full of suspects, but no hint of evidence as to who took it,” Severus explained.

“Who is on the list of suspects?” Voldemort asked.

“The Weasley’s, our Potter’s friends, all the Potion Masters and Healers, as well as the new Potter,” Severus replied promptly.

“And they still let you report to me?” Voldemort was truly curious.

“Reporting the theft put me very low on the suspect list. Potter is at the top of it actually by virtue of not being able to defend himself,” Severus sneered. The only person showing some sense in that regard was Moody, Severus admitted to himself. It galled him to think anything positive about the trigger happy ex-auror.

Voldemort nodded absentmindedly his mind whirling. Could Potter have the poison? This Potter was alive so things in his dimension had gone differently. He had given Potter some thought this last week and had a means of communication prepared. He had hoped to better assess Potter’s mindset first though.

“Do you think Potter would be willing to communicate with me?” he asked his spy.

“He almost certainly does not think highly of the Order,” Severus replied slowly, “but he was summoned as someone who ‘wants to be here’ and ‘is capable of defeating’ you, my Lord.”

“That does not mean he has to. I can’t imagine he wants to work with Dumbledore and his Order with how well he is hidden,” Voldemort pointed out.

“True, my Lord. That doesn’t mean he wants to work with you either,” Severus said, preparing himself to be cursed.

“But if I don’t ask I will never know,” Voldemort smirked at Severus’ discomfort. That was how you could tell his Death Eaters from those that had flocked to him after his take over. The Death Eaters never quite forgot how dangerous he was, even if he hadn’t cursed them just for bringing bad news in years. Watching Severus carefully he hissed, °Cassius!°

Responding to his call a pitch black snake came out from beneath a closet. It located Severus and hissed, rearing up and flaring it’s hood, revealing a yellow underbelly with black stripes. Severus flinch was very satisfying.

°None of that Cassius,° Voldemort admonished the cobra. In a long series of hisses he gave his message for the new Potter. °You remember that?°

°Yes,° Cassius replied and repeated back the message.

°Good. You will go with Severus,° Voldemort indicated his spy, °and deliver it to Harry Potter, the other parselmouth. Go to the Chamber of Secret’s first, I’m sure Angel will help you find him if you tell her I sent you. You remember how to get there?°

°Yes, as if I would forget how to find a Queen!° Cassius sounded distinctly offended.

°Good,° Voldemort turned his attention back to Severus who was doing a reasonably good job at keeping his discomfort at bay. Stoically, he let Cassius climb into the sleeve of his robes, “Cassius here will locate Potter for me. You are to first show him your quarters and then deliver him to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. When he is ready to return to me he will come to your quarters. He has been taught to floo back, he only needs an activated fire, the destination is in parseltongue. I will send him back to your quarters via the floo if necessary.”

“Understood, my Lord,” Severus bowed, not at all pleased at having to ferry around a one and a half meter long, venomous snake but knowing better than to object.

“Is there anything else you wanted to report?” Voldemort asked.

“No, my Lord,” Severus replied promptly, wanting to leave and get rid of the cobra as fast as possible.

“You may leave,” Voldemort allowed. There was no point in making his loyal spy too uncomfortable.

* * *

If having a bad week was a contest Harry was winning it. The continuous exposure to basilisk venom was slowing down his healing considerably and Angel made him nervous enough that he wasn’t sleeping well either. Who knew when she would take his silence as consent for some harebrained scheme again. Plus, she was supremely overprotective and could not be convinced to let him go to the Hogwarts library. He wanted to search for ways to get back home. Harry knew there was an exit from the tunnels close to the library but the basilisk was not budging on her insistence that it wasn’t safe. To an extent she was right of course. He had attempted to sneak out of Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom while Angel was hunting and almost been caught by the Order. That entrance made way too much noise when being operated. Exploring the pipe system had not yielded any success either, Harry would need Angel’s expertise unless he wanted to spend years down here. And Harry doubted that he had years. The poisoned meat Angel brought him was starting to make him mildly nauseous every time he ate it. Yes, his health was still improving but the speed at which it was doing so was slowing. He feared it would stop soon or worse start deteriorating again and he still wasn’t anywhere near peak condition.

So Harry plotted. If he played his cards right and saved up his strength he could probably follow Angel out to her hunting grounds. Once he made it there a simple point-me spell would tell him which direction to go, so he could get out of the Hogwarts anti-apparition ward range. From there he could apparate to Diagon Alley and hopefully get some professional help. The Harry from this dimension was dead and younger than him so no one but the Order should be looking for him. Hopefully, they were deep enough in hiding that Diagon Alley was safe. Really, summoning someone to solve their own problems. As if Harry didn’t have a life he would like to return to. Too bad the Order members already were fugitives as far as he could tell. He would really like to bring the full extent of the law down on them. A close second on his wish list of things to do to the local Order was getting revenge for being poisoned. Not that he was making any headway there either. Due to his careless treatment of the vial of basilisk venom he hadn’t been able to get any evidence off it. It was while Harry was berating himself that Angel returned from her most recent hunt.

°Look who I found!° Angel declared slithering back into the chamber. Her voice was muffled by the furry thing she held in her mouth.

°Who you found?° Harry asked. Angel deposited the furry thing in front of him, °Thank you.°

°He was searching the tunnels muttering about Harry Potter. So I brought him here,° Angel said brightly moving to the side a little to reveal ‘him’. It was a black snake.

°Are you Harry Potter?° he asked, raising his head off the ground to look at Harry.

°Yes,° Harry answered a little surprised.

°I am Cassius. I have a message for you:

Dear Harry Potter,

I hope this message finds you well. As a fellow parselmouth I feel it is my duty to warn you that the people you are residing with have had a vial of basilisk venom stolen from them. Having faced the prosecution that comes with being a parselmouth myself, I fear someone may attempt to use it as a means of killing you.

Moreover, you may or may not be aware that I had a hand in the death of this dimensions Harry Potter. I wish to assure you that while my differences with him were likely not reconcilable this does not extend to you. Even though you may be his counterpart and were summoned to defeat me, I understand it was not your choice. So quite the contrary, I would very much like to get to know a fellow parselmouth.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Lord Voldemort°

For a few moments Harry just stared at the cobra completely baffled, then he gathered himself.

°Cassius?° Harry started tentatively, the snake nodded at him, °It’s really Voldemort who sent you?°

°Of course!° Cassius reared at him hood flaring.

°Sorry!° Harry tried to placate him, °I just didn’t expect him to communicate with me of all people. I need to think.°

Cassius nodded his head regally and curled up on the floor. For his part, Harry was still reeling. Voldemort wanted to open up communication with him? The Voldemort of his dimension would never have done that. Not even in first year when he pretended to do so. But this Voldemort had warned him about the basilisk venom. But that could be a ploy. If he had a spy in the Order he probably already knew all about the attempted murder. Or maybe not? He had been silenced and no one had stayed to confirm his death, so maybe his would be killer was acting alone?

Harry let his eyes drift around the Chamber deep in thought. There wasn’t much to see that he hadn’t seen all of last week. Cassius was on the floor next to him probably sleeping. And Angel had slithered off somewhere leaving the furry thing, now identifiable as a squirrel, behind. Just the sight of the squirrel made his stomach roll. He needed a proper meal, not only meat full of basilisk venom. If he ever got out of here he would never touch meat again. It couldn't hurt to reply to Voldemort, could it? It’s not like the man had easy access to the Chamber. And if he could get access to anything that resembled normal luxuries or even better food it would be worth it. Plus Angel, no matter how much she creeped him out would not let anyone harm him. He was her pet human after all. Even his thoughts sounded bitter.


	5. Chapter 5

_Harry hated how every time a case made the news before investigators were assigned, his team had to take it. Never mind that sometimes these cases didn't even qualify as auror work. Never mind that their skills often would be more useful elsewhere. He understood that the public all but demanded that he be put on the case, but he didn’t have to like it._

_Today’s case was like that. Though Harry would acknowledge, if pressed, that the case qualified as auror work. How the press had gotten hold of the situation before a team could be assigned was anyone's guess. Fact was that the Muggle law enforcement had contacted the ministry on a case of a wizard murdering Muggles. High profile Muggles. Every victim was displayed dramatically; the murderer definitely wanted to make a point._

_Weeks of hard work_ _culminated in_ _Harry and his team chasing the killer through Knockturn Alley. He had just incapacitated him successfully when he felt a horribly familiar tug behind his navel. His last thought before he was whisked away into darkness was, 'Does Dolohov have an accomplice we didn't know about?'_

* * *

Voldemort was in the middle of some paperwork when Cassius came out of his office floo. Gladly he took the chance to put his work aside for a few moments. With practiced movements he flicked his wand at the cobra to remove the soot and asked him, °What have you found?°

°The parselmouth Harry Potter was with the Queen Angel,° Cassius reported, °he says:

Dear Lord Voldemort,

Thank you for your concern. I’m afraid that your warning comes too late. One of the Order members has already attempted to kill me with the venom. Luckily, the events that led to my counterpart’s death here, played out differently in my dimension. Having survived being bitten by Angel at twelve I now have a rather strong poison resistance. However, repeated exposure through the small prey Angel brings me, my only food source, is doing my health no favor.

As the Order of this dimension have made a less than favorable impression on me I’m finding it rather difficult to leave the Chamber to get any other food. Angel is also quite unwilling to help me. I believe she is quite lonely.

At any rate I don’t have any reason not to correspond with you. So I look forward to your next message.

Kind regards,

Harry Potter°

Voldemort was inordinately pleased at Potter’s willingness to reply to his letter. He did not think he would be trusted anytime soon, but the more Potter talked with him the less likely he was to help the Order. Ideally he wanted to win the man over to his side. Someone powerful enough to be a threat to him would be quite a boon, but he would settle for neutrality. If Potter wasn’t dead set on fighting against him there was no need for rash action that would only alienate him. It looked like it would be quite easy to get into Potter's good graces. He obviously needed food and Severus had said he had been injured, so that was two easy avenues to build trust. Once he was more confident Potter wouldn't attempt to kill him he could offer him help in leaving the Chamber. He would have to think a little on the reply and take some time to gather supplies.

°Make yourself comfortable,° he told Cassius, °I’ll have a message for Potter in the morning.°

* * *

It came as a relief to Harry that he got a quick reply from Voldemort. If the man had suddenly developed infinite patience along with appearing to be reasonable Harry would have been much more unnerved. Plus Voldemort had supplied a care pack, Harry could see it shrunk down and tied to Cassius. But first he listened to Voldemort's letter:

°Dear Harry Potter,

I am glad to hear that the venom failed to kill you. I have included a package of various foods in hopes that a better diet will help your health improve. Furthermore, my spies have reported to me that you have sustained a grievous injury to the throat. If you describe your symptoms I can send along a potion to ease any remaining pain.

Maybe you could satisfy my curiosity: How does your dimension differ from this one? Things have to have diverged after the time of your counterpart’s death.

Kind regards,

Lord Voldemort°

Message delivered Cassius allowed Harry to remove the care pack. Eagerly, Harry unshrunk it and peered inside. Within the fairly sizable pack was a large loaf of bread, some butter and a selection of cheeses, vegetables and fruits. All under preservation spells and edible raw. Voldemort had clearly picked up the hint that he had had too much meat recently. Waving his wand over the pack he cast a number of detection spells. When all came back clean he dug in, unwilling to waste thought on making the food last after such a long period of meat-only diet.

This successful opening of communication kicked off a flurry of letters between Harry and Voldemort:

 

°Dear Lord Voldemort,

Thank you for the supplies. Not having to eat poisoned food is allowing my health to improve. I still suffer the venom induced nausea, but it has gotten significantly better. My throat is fine for now, so thank you for the offer, but I think only a professional can help at this point. And I still haven’t managed to convince Angel to show me any of the secondary exits of the Chamber. But I think she’s paying more attention to what I’m saying now.

Since I don’t know what happened in this dimension, I do not know how things differ. But here a brief overview of my interactions with your counterpart:

After he failed to retrieve the philosophers stone in 1992, he also failed to resurrect himself from his diary in 1993. He did succeed in 1995 with the help of Peter Pettigrew, Barty Crouch Jr. and my unwilling participation. For a year he laid low and worked from behind the scenes until his return was revealed to the public during a bid to hear the prophecy pertaining to the both of us. A two year long open war followed. In ‘97 he successfully had Dumbledore killed and took over the ministry in quick succession. After thatconditions throughout the country were so bad that people rebelled everywhere, which culminated in his defeat and death in 1998. We’ve been rebuilding since.

How did things play out here? The Order seems much more desperate than it ever was in my dimension.

Kind regards,

Harry Potter°

 

°Dear Harry Potter,

I’m glad to hear that you are feeling better. Since most people cannot survive Angel’s venom I don’t have any suggestions on what to do about the nausea. I will continue to provide food so you are not as reliant on Angel for meals. Cassius also has orders to convince Angel to let you leave. I will be happy to organize a healer for you once you have left Hogwarts.

It seems events in our dimension started to notably differ in 1993. I’m sure Angel has already told you all about my partial resurrection which resulted in your counterpart’s death. After that I tracked down the part of me that possessed Quirrell to complete my resurrection. In 1994 Pettigrew found me and updated me on current wizarding affairs. I then rebuilt my support base and infiltrated the ministry. Once my base was solid in 1996 I listened to the prophecy to confirm that it had been completed.

That allowed meto move into the open. By the end of 1997 the resistance was reduced to the Order. They managed to take over Hogwarts during Christmas break, which didn’t make them any friends among population with school aged family members. At least no children were held hostage. Between that and their frequent raids they have been loosing support and numbers. So despite their continued attacks things have now stabilized.

I hope that answers your questions.

Voldemort°

 

°Dear Voldemort,

Thank you for your help with Angel. She is slowly coming around to the idea that I cannot stay in the Chamber forever. Instead she wants to leave herself.

I am curious: In my home dimension you always seemed hell bent on killing all muggles and muggle-borns. If you think that, we can’t get along.

Harry°

 

°Dear Harry,

Do tell me as soon as you think you can leave the Chamber. I’d like to meet you in person. If Angel insists on leaving the castle I’m sure I can find a place for her. But it will have to wait until I control Hogwarts.

Considering the Order’s view on me and the state the part of me that possessed Quirrell was in, I understand why you would think me more interested in utter subjugation than ruling. I won’t claim that I dislike unquestioning obedience, but I prefer ruling without constant uprisings more. So a happy people is in my interest.

Voldemort°

 

By this point Harry was thoroughly fed up with staying in the chamber and beating around the bush. He still didn’t want to interact with the Order and it didn’t seem Voldemort was going to kill him on the spot. He really didn’t care anymore if their ideals didn’t align perfectly – he just wanted out. Angel also seemed to have accepted that her brand of mothering was doing him more damage that allowing him to leave would. So his next letter was fairly to the point.

 

°Dear Voldemort,

I think I will take you up on that offer. You have convinced me that you are more willing to compromise than the Voldemort I knew. Before we meet in person you probably should know that I was the person to kill your counterpart in my dimension. But I have no interest in doing the same here. If possible I want to return to my dimension. If not, I still have no interest in fighting another war.

Harry°

 

Voldemort, inordinately pleased to receive that letter after almost two weeks of correspondence, replied swiftly:

 

°Dear Harry,

I am glad to hear that you are willing to meet me. From your previous account I’d suspected that you were involved in my counterpart's defeat. Holding that against you when you don’t blame me for killing your counterpart would be fairly hypocritical.

I will send Severus to meet you at the Leaky Cauldron on Sunday at 7pm. Can you leave the Chamber by then?

Voldemort°

 

°Voldemort,

I’ll be there.

Harry°

 

Sunday wasn’t far away, so Harry removed all his additions to the Chamber. Cassius had already done most of the work of convincing Angel to let him go, so she was mostly resigned to him not staying. That did not mean that she was happy about it. In fact she sulked the entire way to the exit in the Forbidden Forest. He hasted after the giant snake casting auror grade concealment spells as he went and shouting out to Angel what he was doing so she wouldn’t be surprised. Not that he got any acknowledgment from her. She just continued on, leading him out of the tunnels and towards the forest boundaries.

The forest was unnaturally quiet, the basilisk scaring away even the night dwellers. Harry had chosen to leave the Chamber in the early morning so he would catch the Order flat footed. If they had alarms around hospital beds they certainly would have them around Hogwarts, even if they hadn’t been there in his reality. He was not sure yet what he would do with his additional time, but even following a basilisk through a terrified forest was a nice change of pace from hiding in the Chamber. The food Voldemort had provided had just barely lasted until the previous night. He had not been willing to make himself nauseous again by eating the poisoned meat Angel provided. So maybe he would get himself breakfast somewhere. He had a few galleons in his money pouch from before he was summoned here and he had managed to keep himself and his clothes reasonably clean, though they looked very worn now. Yes, that thought sounded excellent.

The only question was how he was going to communicate his order. A short self-test had shown that he still couldn’t speak English. Anything involving his throat became garbled, though not painful. Which was not relieving. What if the damage the Order had inflicted on him was permanent? He wished Ron or Hermione were here with him. They would have something encouraging to say. But no, he was following a sulking snake through the Forbidden Forest to sneak out of Hogwarts because the local Order had decided to dump their problems on him.

°We’re here,° Angel hissed irritably.

°Thank you,° Harry said gratefully, °I don’t know what I would have done without you.°

°Your welcome,° she said slightly softer doing an excellent job of looking pathetic.

°I’ll try to visit,° Harry gave into the look.

°Really?° Angel asked eagerly.

°If the Order is gone and I haven’t been summoned back by then,° He promised.

°Great!°

°But it’s time to say good bye now,° Harry continued.

°I know,° Angel was more subdued now, °good bye.°

She turned and left for the Chamber. Steeling himself, Harry ran across the Hogwarts boundary and twisted into apparition while still moving. Finally, finally he was away.

With a loud crack he landed in a side alley near the Leaky Cauldron. He was less likely to encounter Order spies that way. Sensing no magic nearby he dismissed the concealment spells.

“Who are you?” a male voice came from the darkness.

Harry spun, wand at the ready. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of red hair. A blasting spell flew from his wand hitting the man square in the chest. Then his mind caught up with reality and he quickly cast a muggle repelling spell at the alley entrance before he could breach the Statute of Secrecy. Quite obviously this wasn't who had poisoned him. For one, neither 'accio’ nor any other spell revealed a wand. Secondly, it was highly unlikely that anyone from the Order was out in the streets of Muggle London at this time. But now he had a dead Muggle at his feet. Homeless from the looks of it. Well, he thought with a sigh, he probably wouldn’t be missed then. All auror training included a stint with the crime scene clean up team and the obliviators so Harry knew what needed to be done even if he wasn’t pleased about it. A battery of crime scene specific vanishing and cleaning spells and no traces of the homeless man remained.

Staring at the now clean alley Harry decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea to go to Diagon Alley just yet. He was still too twitchy. He could spend some time in Muggle London, where Order encounters were incredibly unlikely. A growl from his stomach reminded him of his hunger. With a few practiced swishes of his wand he transfigured his robes into muggle clothing. Then he took down the muggle repelling spell and went to find breakfast.

* * *

By nine in the morning Harry was making his way back into Diagon Alley, happier than he had been since his arrival in this dimension. The reason for his good mood was the delicious breakfast a well placed 'confundo' or two had gotten him in a nice Muggle cafe – language problem circumvented. Coincidentally, that had also circumvented the problem that he didn’t have any pounds on him.

Taking a fortifying breath he stepped into the Leaky Cauldron. Once more he reminded himself that the Order were unlikely to attack him in broad daylight. Looking around Harry was surprised, if he hadn't known that Voldemort essentially ruled magical Great Britain, he would never have guessed from the scene that presented itself in the pub. The atmosphere wasn't much different from that of the muggle cafe he just came from. There were a dozen or so people sitting alone reading a newspaper or staring into a cup of coffee. Close to the bar there were small groups of two or three idly chatting with each other. A family with two small children were making a lot of noise in one of the corners as the mother tried to retrieve her wand from her little boy. The little girl was clapping happily and occasionally attempting to grab for the wand as well. Her father was holding her, preventing her from adding to the chaos, but that meant he couldn't help his wife. Tom stood behind the bar, directing food and drink to the various patrons and keeping an eye on things. The only concession to the ongoing war Harry could see were two aurors, one standing next to each entrance of the pub.

Stepping into the pub more fully he removed the transfigurations he had placed on his robes for the muggle world, getting an approving nod from the auror next to him. None of the patrons spared him so much as a glance, and even Tom was too busy directing food to the little family without it ending all over the floor to greet him.

When entering Diagon Alley proper the war became a bit more obvious. Aurors could be found every couple of meters and there were none of the stalls that characterized the ally in times of peace, nor did any food places have outside seating. However, shoppers didn't appear to be rushed the way they did when the war with Voldemort was out in the open in his world. They walked from shop to shop at a leisurely pace taking time to look at store fronts and chat with acquaintances. In fact it wasn't until after Harry returned to the alley, having taken a lunch break in muggle London, that anything happened to indicate things were very different from his home dimension. Only pure chance had Harry studying a self stirring cauldron in the window of a potions shop near the Diagon Alley apparition point when a loud crack was heard. That on its own wasn't anything unusual. It had taken a couple of attempts for him to stop twitching at every crack, but people had been arriving and leaving all day. What was unusual, however, was the silence that descended upon the group a few meters away from him.

Now curious, he turned his head a little so he could observe the new arrivals out of the corner of his eye. To his great surprise he recognized all three. Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. Cackling madly, Bellatrix skipped ahead of the other two, passers-by moving out of her way quickly. The Lestrange brothers followed a little behind her in a more dignified manner their shoulders tense and eyes watchful. It didn't take long to find out why.

“Ah, look,” Bellatrix cooed pointing at a little girl, “isn't she the cutest thing! I want her.”

The girls mother moved closer to her child but didn't dare say anything.

“No, Bellatrix,” Rodolphus said in a calm voice.

“But she's pretty!”

Harry discreetly fingered his wand.

“You still can't have her,” her husband replied in an even tone.

“Yes, I can,” the woman declared and made to grab the little girl. A red flash from Rabastan's wand and she crumpled where she stood, too focused on the girl to even draw her own wand in defense. Harry could practically feel the tension bleeding out of the people in the alley as Rodolphus and Rabastan collected Bellatrix off the street. Rodolphus disapparated with the unhinged woman while Rabastan stayed to continue whatever business brought them to the alley in the first place. He did not apologize to the woman and her child, nor did he acknowledge anyone else, but there was much less tension in the air. Not as relaxed as it had been before, people kept a wary eye on Rabastan, but nowhere near as tense as when Bellatrix was around.

* * *

“Mr. Potter,” Severus said quietly while walking past Potter to the back rooms. He hoped the man was intelligent enough to follow. Luckily for Severus’ nerves, Potter discretely followed him into the back room the Dark Lord had booked for this occasion. It was the only room it was possible to disapparate from, though it was still impossible apparate in. Only Severus experience with both Dumbledore and the Dark Lord that kept him from fidgeting under Potter’s penetrating gaze. Those green eyes reminded him both of Lily and this dimensions Harry, but at the same time not. Neither of them had ever been as judging, as assessing as these were.

“As you can surely understand the Dark Lord wishes to verify your identity before we proceed,” Severus said when it became clear that Potter was waiting for him to do something.

He got a small nod of acknowledgment, no more. Severus gave Cassius on his arm a nudge. The cobra shot out from under his sleeve in response, hissing at Potter. Said man gave a little laugh at whatever was being said, a dry and raspy sound that didn't strike Severus as healthy, before replying in the same language. After that horrible laugh, it gave Severus the chills to hear the smooth tones of parseltongue form Potter. No one should be capable of making such contrasting sounds in such a short span of time.

If the ability to speak parseltongue didn't confirm it, then the slight squeeze Cassius gave his arm – the agreed upon signal – made it obvious that this was indeed Harry Potter and not some impostor.

“If you would take my arm please so I can apparate us to the Dark Lord,” Severus said offering the appendage. He received a raised eyebrow and an incredulous glance in return. Slowly Potter brought his left hand forward to hang onto his arm. At the same time Severus saw him slip his wand into his right hand. Well, from someone who had been kidnapped from his dimension and poisoned with the intent to kill by the same people, you couldn't expect much more trust than that, Severus supposed.

With a little twist and a loud crack the two men disappeared from the back room only to reappear near a small manor house. Severus was quite sure that Voldemort had stolen the building off some unsuspecting muggles, not that he would say that to the Dark Lord's face. He wasn't suicidal, thank you very much.

* * *

Voldemort felt it the minute Severus crossed the wards a second person in tow. Not only did the wards always alert him to people arriving on his property, but he also had been eagerly awaiting this meeting. Abruptly he got up to go meet the stranger in the entrance hall, having lost the battle with his curiosity. It didn't take long after his arrival for Severus to enter.

His spy was clearly very tense, his bow upon seeing Voldemort was very shallow. In different circumstances that would have earned him a 'crucio'. Today, however, Voldemort was more interested in the source of Severus unease, the man walking cautiously behind him, wand in hand. Just like the boy that had died in the Chamber of Secrets this man looked like a carbon copy of James Potter with Lily Evans' eyes. Voldemort would have had a strong sense of deja-vu if not for several little things. For one, this Harry Potter was both older than his counterpart and his parents at their deaths, the lack of glasses only accentuating that. For another, despite or maybe because of his caution, he carried an air of lethality that James Potter never possessed. Two scars, however, were what distinguished him the most from James Potter. One was of course the famous lightning bolt on his forehead, the other was the long scar that crossed his entire neck.

°Harry,° he hissed testing the man though there was little doubt of his identity, °Welcome to my home.°

°Voldemort,° Harry replied bowing his head slightly in acknowledgment. Not subservience, never subservience. °Thank you for having me.°

He gave a little grin at Snape's tense muscles when he spoke at his back. Payback for all the times his dimension's Snape had made his life miserable. Snape couldn't see Harry, but the answering curl of lips on Voldemort's face only served to make him more nervous.

°Cassius, time to leave Severus,° Voldemort ordered. While the cobra slithered out from beneath the Potions Master's robes, Voldemort briefly turned his attention to Snape. “You may leave, I will expect your weekly report tomorrow.”

“My Lord,” Snape didn't have to be told twice. With a quick bow he departed the moment the snake was off his person.

°Now that he is gone,° Voldemort turned back to Harry, °would you care for a late dinner?°

°Definitely,° Harry replied cheerfully.

°I’ve done some research into how the Order summoned you,° Voldemort said conversationally, °Severus provided me with the name of the book Dumbledore got the ritual from. I’m afraid nothing indicates it can be reversed.°

°Nothing?° Harry asked voice not cheerful anymore, but dangerously quiet.

°Well nothing I could find. There were no case studies where the magical residue had not dissipated, yet,° seeing Harry’s scowl Voldemort offered, °The Department of Mysteries might know more.°

Thoughts of Hermione’s excitement when she got accepted to work at the Department of Mysteries flashed through Harry’s mind. Both he and Ron had been so proud of her.

°Would it be possible for me to research the topic with the unspeakables?° he asked determinedly.

°I’m sure I can arrange something,° Voldemort nodded. °But I’d have to be convinced that you would not work against me first. You are Harry Potter after all, an important figure for the rebellion… An oath would be sufficient I think.°

Harry chose not to be offended by the Dark Lord’s reasonable caution.

°That would only tell you I'm serious at the moment and not ensure that I won't betray you in the future,° he said instead.

°Considering what I know of your character, I only need the confirmation that you haven't fooled me all this time. Anything more binding would require you to take my mark,° Voldemort pointed out.

°Never!° Harry almost shouted.

°I thought as much,° Voldemort placated. °So why should I push you away if I can have you with just an oath? Many work for me with similar precautions. It would be tedious to mark every single person in the wizarding world for loyalty, and ultimately achieve nothing. Those determined to betray me would manage anyway.°

°Sometimes I forget how much saner you are than my Voldemort,° Harry mused. °Very well. I, Harry James Potter, swear that I will not support the Order of the Phoenix or other rebels; that I do not intend to do anything to jeopardize Lord Voldemort’s government; and that I mean no harm to Lord Voldemort; so I swear.°

Harry could feel the magic of the oath judging his words for truth. A short flare of light signaled his truthfulness to Voldemort who nodded in acceptance of the oath. At the snap of his fingers a house-elf appeared with two plates of steaming lasagna. Happily Harry dug into the first sophisticated dinner he had in weeks.


	6. Chapter 6

_Hermione was late for dinner again. It was the third time this week; she felt like it was her job to find all there is to know about the summoning ritual. Ron sighed and cast a_ _stasis_ _charm on the food. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t doing all he could as well, but he’d never been one for books and research_ _a_ _nd that was what was going to help Harry now. Of course they hadn’t completely stopped looking at other possibilities for Harry’s disappearance, but most effort was being devoted to the ‘summoned to an alternate universe’ option that Hermione had discovered. So Ron’s workload coordinating the teams searching for Harry across the UK had gone down from ‘spending every minute searching’ to ‘ten hours a day is enough’. He was convinced that, if it wasn’t Harry they were looking for, the ministry wouldn’t be devoting the time and effort they were now. But Harry was not just a war-hero, he was the defeater of Voldemort and had been part of a number of high profile auror cases since. He was the nations darling and that something like this could happen to him shocked the masses. Sometimes Ron wondered if they thought fighting Voldemort had been_ _a_ _safe_ _occupation_ _._

_Bang! He heard the tell tale sound of apparition, shortly followed by the front door being unlocked._

“ _I’m home!” Hermione's voice_ _sounded_ _a short moment later._

“ _Dinner is on the table,” Ron called back removing the stasis charm and seating himself._

“ _Thank you,” Hermione said_ _sitting_ _do_ _w_ _n across from Ron._

“ _Anything new?” Ron asked loading peas onto his plate._

“ _Yes actually,” Hermione said animatedly, “we’ve finally pinned down the requirements to summon Harry back home. Essentially, we have to do the same ritual again with everything geared towards returning Harry to us. For example, he was summoned from this universe on a new moon so we will make the attempt to summon him back on a full moon. That way we have symmetry of absence and presence in the celestial constellations to match the absence and presence of Harry. Hopefully, we can do it this full moon. I’m not sure what waiting a cycle would do. Time doesn’t have to flow the same here and in the universe he was summoned to so I’m worried he might come back an old man if we don’t summon him back as soon as possible._

“ _I mean I’m already worried that he might not fulfill the ‘can be equally happy in the summoners universe’ requirement anymore. After all he was summoned to the other universe on that requirement._ _W_ _hat if he is really happy there now and doesn’t want to come back? Ron, do you think Ginny’s death could mean he wouldn’t be happy enough to return? Away from here he might not be constantly reminded of her.”_

“ _Hermione,” Ron interrupted before she could talk herself into more of a frenzy, “Ginny has been dead for four years. We all miss her, but Harry has started dating again. Remember Rhona,_ _t_ _hat witch from_ _Sleekeazy‘s R &D department, he dated for a while last year?“_

“ _Oh, right,” Hermione said considerably calmer._

“ _So what else do we need for the ritual?” Ron prompted._

“ _Not much. A lot of people to empower it, but we won’t be short on people willing to help,” she began._

“ _Count me in.”_

“ _Thanks,” Hermione gave a small smile, “We also need a ritual room, but the we have one in the Department that’s in good condition. Croaker said he’d be able to cleanse it by Friday, that gives us a day to set up the ritual. The most important component is the person leading it, it has to be someone can focus all of the ritual magic on getting our Harry back and not accidentally summon someone else. So that means the person has to know Harry really, really well. Which means me or you.”_

“ _You,” Ron interrupted as she paused to take a breath, “You are the one that has this all figured out. I’ll help power the ritual and think of our Harry very hard, but you are the best possible choice to lead the ritual.”_

_Hermione beamed at him, “I love you.”_

“ _I love you, too,” Ron answered with a smile._

* * *

Harry luxuriated in the feeling of waking in a real bed. The conjured one in the Chamber of Secrets had nothing on the wide and comfortable bed in the room Voldemort had given him. Happily, he snuggled into the sheets only to be hit with a stinging hex. Seconds later he was standing next to the bed wand pointed a the intruder. A house-elf. Voldemort's house-elf to be precise. Harry relaxed, now well and truly awake.

“Master, asks for your presence at breakfast,” she squeaked out in a high voice.

°Tell him I will be there shortly,° he replied only to get a blank look in return. Right only parseltongue at the moment. He nodded at her.

Satisfied the house-elf disappeared with a pop. Gathering his clothes from where they lay cleaned and folded on a chair, he made his way down the hall to the bathroom for his morning ablutions. Twenty minutes later he had found his way to the dining room without having to resort to calling the house-elf. Unsurprisingly, Voldemort already awaited him.

°Good morning,° the man hissed in greeting.

°Morning,° Harry mumbled his sleepiness having caught back up to him.

°I've ordered a healer for you. She should be here in an hour,° Voldemort informed him.

°Thanks,° Harry said focused on levitating the coffee pot to pour himself a cup.

The two ate in silence both reading different sections of the Daily Prophet. Over two cups of coffee and a truly delicious breakfast Harry came to the conclusion that the Prophet reflected the impression of peace Diagon Alley had given. Yes, there was a notice to report any suspicious activity to the ministry as the Order terrorist were still at large, but mostly it talked about every day news and what this or that celebrity was doing. The quiet of the morning was broken when Voldemort looked off to the side and said, °Your Healer is here.°

A quiet pop heralded the appearance of a house-elf.

“Master, Healer Davis is in the parlor,” he said.

“Show her to the sitting room,” Voldemort answered.

The house-elf bowed, disappearing with another pop a moment later. Chairs scraped over the floor as both Voldemort and Harry got up to make their way to the sitting room. The healer was already inside, when Voldemort entered she got to her feet and bowed deeply.

“My Lord.”

“Isabelle, this is Harry Potter. As you can see he has had a throat wound. I would like you to inspect it.”

“Of course, my Lord,” Healer Davis replied not even blinking at Harry’s name, “You will be staying?”

“Yes, though Harry is capable of understanding English his vocal chords have been damaged.”

“My Lord,” she bowed her head, then turned to Harry. “I will have to cast some diagnostic spells on your throat, Mr. Potter. They shouldn't be painful, but can be if combined with some types of magic residue. It would be best if you could tell me all that has been done to your throat before I begin.”

°Do you know the general history? I assume Snape told you,° Harry asked Voldemort ignoring the Healer’s flinch at the language.

°Yes, but I don't know what you did to yourself.°

°A minor wound knitting spell two weeks ago. That's it. But until you started sending me food I ingested basilisk venom every day. And I probably haven’t been eating enough.°

Voldemort rallied the information to Davis.

“I don't know how the basilisk venom will react, but everything else shouldn't be an issue. If any of these spells hurt, tell me immediately,” she told Harry after a moment or two of thought.

Harry gave a curt nod, waiting for her to begin. A flurry of spells in various colors was shot at him for half an hour, the frown on the healer’s face growing more pronounced with each spell.

“I have some good and some bad news,” she made a little pause to allow Harry to say something. When he didn’t she continued, “While you are a little malnourished, as you expected, that is easily fixable by eating normally from now on. There still are traces of venom in your bloodstream, but your body has adapted to the presence of it. It even is producing it itself. That means that your blood is toxic, highly so, but as long as you keep track of your blood and your Healers are informed that shouldn’t be an issue. There are signs of partially healed damage to your stomach lining from the venom, but your esophagus is fine. I’ll send you a couple of potions to speed up the recovery. You’d be surprised how may things can cause similar damage, I don’t expect any long term issues.

Lastly, your throat. The good news is, I specialize in soft tissue damage and transfigurative healing so I’m the right person to fix your vocal chords. The bad news is, it’s going to be a long and painful process. Step number one is, I’m afraid, waiting for the last of the spell residue to dissipate. Not knowing what the residue was like when you first got the wound it is difficult to tell, but I would estimate about a month until that is the case. In the mean time please avoid using magic on your throat or speaking. Parseltongue should be fine since it doesn’t involve vocal chords, but non-magical speaking is not advisable.”

She ended her report with an uncertain look at Voldemort when it really should have been Harry's reaction she was worried about. Voldemort's calm demeanor and the furious hissing from Harry alerted her to that fact, °So I will have to spend months healing, speaking nothing but parseltongue just because one idiot form the Order almost beheaded me and another tried to poison me? Great, just great. I hope you have plans on attacking them Voldemort. Because I will find out who tried to kill me and I will make sure their punishment is suitably painful.°

* * *

Later that day, Voldemort was telling Harry about the arrangements for him to study the ritual that summoned him in the Department of Mysteries.

°They assured me that the parseltongue won't be an issue,° Voldemort told Harry. °In fact, if they become to pushy about studying it, feel free to curse them. But you’ll have to endure questions on the ritual I’m afraid.°

°I think I’ll manage,° said Harry grumpily.

A knock sounded.

“Come in,” Voldemort called, earning him an annoyed look from Harry, who was well aware the man had known he had a guest since the moment the ward boundaries were crossed. Snape entered with a bow to Voldemort and an acknowledging nod to Harry.

“My Lord, Mr. Potter.”

°Harry, do leave, please,° Voldemort hissed at Harry.

°Who can I tell about anything, anyway?° Harry asked bitterly.

°Don't tell me you've unlearned how to write,° Voldemort replied.

°Fine,° was his snippy answer. Voldemort merely raised an eyebrow. With a sigh Harry got up and made to leave the room.

Seeing this Snape interjected, “My Lord, part of what I have to say is about the attempt to poison Mr. Potter.”

Harry's eyes darted to the Dark Lord not willing to push is buttons any further, but insanely curious was to what Snape found out.

“Very well, you may stay for the beginning of his report.”

A small smile on his lips, Harry returned to his chair.

“The Order has managed to narrow down the people that may have stolen the venom to this list.” Snape held out a list to the Dark Lord. While said man was pursuing the list Snape added, “I've marked those those that are too young to get past the age line surrounding the storage in blue.”

Voldemort studied the list for a few more moments, then handed it over to Harry.

“Do any of these people hold a grudge against Harry?”

“Well, Mr. Potter did manage to kill three Order members during his summoning and permanently maim several more, so anyone could hold a grudge. At the very least the Weasley's and Daniel Fox. Mr. Potter killed both William Weasley and Adele Fawley, whom was Fox' sister. Fox' friend, Jonas Fawley, Mrs. Fawley's husband, was maimed by Mr. Potter as well. Everyone else on that list was not particularly close to anyone killed or maimed.”

°Does anyone on this list have red hair? Aside from the Weasleys?° Harry asked the moment Snape's mouth closed. Snape eyed him warily, the Death Eaters all knew that if the Dark Lord spoke parseltongue he was either talking to Nagini or enraged. In the former case it was highly possible that the large snake was tattling on someone who would then be punished. In the latter case it was a given that the person responsible for the rage was going to bear the brunt of their Lord's anger.

°You saw your attacker?° Voldemort asked.

°Only vaguely. The only thing I'm sure of is that it was a red head.°

The Dark Lord repeated Harry's question to Snape who was doing his best to hide that he was eyeing them both cautiously.

“No,” was his prompt response.

°Then it was either Molly or Arthur Weasley. Fred, George, Ron and Percy are marked as too young to cross the age line. Ginny is dead I presume. But why isn't Charlie on the list?° Harry mused ignoring the small pang he felt at thinking of Ginny. Why did only her death in this dimension get to him when he didn’t care all that much about everyone else’ fate?

°Yes, the girl is dead,° Voldemort confirmed then repeated Harry's question for Snape.

“Charlie Weasley didn't know of the venom being in the school,” Snape answered. “Only those that were there for the immediate aftermath of Harry Potter's and Ginevra Weasley's death or those with a reason to access the more volatile potions ingredients were aware of the venom.”

Harry nodded a fire in his eyes that made Snape even more uneasy than his language skills.

°I have the vial that held the venom. I've tried to pull additional information off it but Hogwarts obscured any residual magic and I accidentally destroyed a lot of evidence because I was so out of it after the poisoning. I can give it to you or Snape to pull information off it with potions, I couldn't do that in the Chamber and potions really aren't my strength anyway.°

°If you were capable of brewing them what potions would you want to have?° Voldemort asked intrigued.

°Ah, probably Reveal-All first and then go from there.°

°I don't even know what that is,° Voldemort said. Harry blinked at the admission, but choose not to comment and answer the question instead.

°It reveals all traces of matter on something dunked into it. A skilled investigator can match residue based on color.°

“Severus,” the Dark Lord asked his spy, “have you ever brewed 'Reveal-All'.”

“No, my Lord,” Severus replied his eyes flickering between Harry and Voldemort, “the creator only released the recipe a few months ago. I'm confident I could brew it, though.”

“Then do that. Additionally, you will attempt to find out if Molly or Arthur Weasley poisoned Harry,” Voldemort ordered.

“My Lord,” Severus bowed.

“Is there anything else pertaining to Harry?”

“No, my Lord. That was all.”

Taking the not so subtle hint, Harry got up and left the room. So it most likely had been either Molly or Arthur… Both of them definitely had shown their potential for being more dangerous than they appeared in his dimension. And they had plenty of motive.

* * *

Severus was exhausted. Pretending to search for Potter had seriously cut into his sleeping time, but that was at an end now. Potter leaving the castle had sounded the wards so it was well known by now that he wasn’t in the castle anymore. Now all that was expected of him, was to keep an ear to the ground. Despite his exhaustion he needed to be at this Order meeting. It was important. With Potter gone “acting is more important than ever” according to Alastor. The time for convincing was over now the Diagon Alley raid was being planned.

“How about we do it a month from now?” Hestia Jones suggested, her eyes hard.

“On Christmas Eve?” Molly countered voice full of disbelief.

“Well yes, it will have a larger impact. And people will be more likely to notice we only target aurors if there are more people around in general. Less chance of Voldemort hushing things up.”

“Also more chance of us harming innocents,” Kingsley pointed out.

“There always is a chance of that. But if we're going high impact we should do it properly,” Hestia's voice was as hard as her eyes. It was difficult to believe that she was not much more than twenty years old. Her sister Gwenog had been a guest at a party the Order raided, which took place in a Death Eater manor. She had not made it out alive.

“They won't expect us to attack on Christmas Eve,” Moody said slowly a contemplating look on his face.

Severus glanced at Albus then Minerva, they had been the strongest opponents of this plan. He did not find any reassurance. Albus was frowning, but listening to the discussion quite intently, not appearing to intend to interrupt any time soon. Admittedly, Albus' word had lost some power after the spectacular failure that was Potter’s summoning. It seemed Albus, after endless arguing, had resigned himself to this plan.

Minerva met his eyes for a moment, lips pursed. She too was listening intently to what passed, but glared at those promoting the plan when they looked her way. Despite her obvious displeasure she did not say anything either. Similarly to Albus, Severus suspected, she had realized after endless meetings, that this raid was going to happen and was resigned to it.

It took an hour of discussion to establish the basic plan for the Diagon Alley raid, then the meeting finally moved on to different matters.

“Tonks,” Albus asked, “what is the status in the Ministry?”

“There has been an increase in aurors on stand-by again. I believe the corps are now stretched to their maximum capacity. Many of them are not pleased.”

“Anything we can use to our advantage?” Moody asked.

“No. Most blame us. Apparently the lack of raids on our part is making the higher-ups twitchy. And the last raid wasn’t long enough ago that the more veteran aurors feel they are wrong. The younger ones follow the lead of the elders.”

“Anything else to report?” Albus asked.

The woman in question shook her head.

“Severus, could you please report then? Have you heard anything about Mr. Potter?” Albus turned to Severus.

“As you all know the Dark Lord is interested in anyone who shares his traits. Therefore, he was very pleased when Potter agreed to reside in his home,” Severus began only to be interrupted.

“So just to clarify: Not that it was bad enough that Potter killed our own, now he is allying with Voldemort?” Hestia asked somewhere between rage and disbelief.

“It would seem so,” Severus agreed.

“Unbelievable,” Hestia spat, rage winning.

“Not so much if you know that Potter disappeared on us because somebody tired to poison him. That is where the basilisk venom went – the entire vial. If the Dark Lord knows how Potter survived he has not shared it with me.”

Sharing that was a calculated move on Severus part. Both elder Weasleys were at the meeting so hopefully he would get a chance to legilimize them and find out which one of them poisoned Potter. His words were met with uneasy silence.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about the venom anymore,” Minerva bit out. No matter that it was Potter, someone in the Order had attempted to murder another human being in cold blood. Most of the Order members were not happy with that thought. And those that were, wisely kept that to themselves.

“I believe,” Albus said into the continued silence, “that we should end this meeting for now. Unless somebody has something urgent to add?”

There was a general shaking of heads.

Severus took that as his cue to slip out of the meeting and wait just behind the door to catch the Weasleys. Arthur Weasley came out first and nodded at him. That allowed a moments eye contact in which Severus could skim his surface thoughts. The man was thinking about ways Potter could have left the castle, his thoughts flitting over all the secret passageways that his sons’ map showed and a few additional possibilities like sneaking through the forest. For some reason a cabinet with steadily more mangled sausage popping in and out came up. Weasley dismissed cabinet rather quickly as it was obviously broken and focused back on different ways through the forest. Then the moment of eye-contact was gone and Severus hurried to focus on Molly Weasley next who had followed her husband out. She did not conveniently look at him, but that could be changed.

“Mrs. Weasley,” he said smoothly his ability to make his voice carry in a classroom easily allowing him to catch her attention. The moment she looked him in the eye, he entered her mind. He was just in time to see her thinking of a hazard substances vial being levitated over an unconscious Potter followed by a short flash of the same vial being levitated out of the advanced potions supply cabinet. Then her focus shifted to him, only his face reflected in her thoughts.

“I wanted to know if there are any potions that need to be restocked?” Severus asked.

“Maybe some nutrient potions,” Mrs. Weasley replied thinking a moment, “I’ll have to ask Poppy how much she thinks we will need.”

“Can you get back to me by Friday?”

“That won’t be a problem.”

Giving her a genial nod of good bye, Severus turned and strode to his office. He needed to check the layout of the memory potions cupboard against the real one to see if Molly Weasley was remembering or if she was only thinking possibilities. The latter seemed unlikely. She tended to show a much larger degree of viciousness on the battlefield than anyone would have thought of the homely woman, especially when her family was threatened. Severus certainly thought she was capable of murdering someone under the right circumstances, and it seemed Potter out cold in the hospital wing had met the requirements.

* * *

The information on the Diagon Alley raid merited an extra report to the Dark Lord. So Severus found himself before the man only two days after his last report.

“My Lord,” Severus bowed to Voldemort who was seated behind his desk.

“Report.”

“The Order has decided to attack Diagon Alley on the 24th. The aurors stationed there are the main target, but I believe many do not care about involving by-standers all that much. Here are all the details I could get.”

Severus handed the Dark Lord several sheets of paper. Voldemort took a moment to skim through them. It seemed that while the who and where was decided the how was still very much up in the air with several options being contemplated. Voldemort put the file aside and nodded for Severus to continue.

“I’ve also been able to confirm that it was Molly Weasley that tried to kill Mr. Potter. As far as I can tell it was a snap decision that didn’t involve anyone else.”

“Harry will be happy to have that cleared up.”

Severus nodded, and when Voldemort said nothing else, continued.

“Do you still want me to brew Reveal-All for Potter?”

“Unless you are in the middle of brewing put it on hold for now. If he still wants it he can have it later,” Voldemort decided, “Was there anything else?”

“No my Lord.”

“Very well, continue keeping me up to date,” Voldemort said with finality.

Severus bowed. He would have to hurry back to Hogwarts before his absence became suspicious.

* * *

Harry’s forays into the Department of Mysteries were not going very satisfactorily. Yes, the tour of the Department of Mysteries was definitely very interesting, Harry got the distinct impression that they had been given a lot of information on him, and now desperately wanted him for their team because of it. Although, admittedly he wasn't quite clear on what they wanted him for exactly. Sure the guy he and his guide met in the Death Chamber was very excited to see him. So much that he stumbled over his words. The same could be said for the unspeakables in the space room, time room and the prophecy hall. Heck, even in the think tank the brains got excited, though Harry, no matter how much he tried, couldn't figure out why. But they seemed much more interested in what he could do for them than in what they could do for him. He had in fact needed to curse an unspeakable that resolutely ignored his body language and very clear, if written, “no”. In the end they had given him access to their records and research on trans dimensional magic and agreed to do some tests. So Harry had begun searching through the information in hopes of some way to get back to his friends and family, so far without success.

In the afternoon a frustrated Harry found Voldemort in his study looking at the layout of a distinctly familiar building.

°Is that Hogwarts?° he asked.

°Yes,° the Dark Lord agreed absentmindedly still staring at what looked to be the passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack, °I'm trying to find out how to get into the castle without alerting the Order.° Frustration seeped into his voice, °According to Wormtail, the Order is aware of all the secret passages off the grounds we know of. So the wards that alert the Headmaster and Deputy of people passing Hogwarts' boundary probably extend to them.°

°If things played out the way they did in my dimension, Fred and George Weasley have the map Wormtail, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and my father made of Hogwarts. It can be blocked with a not-here-tag.°

Voldemort nodded, °Thank you, but that doesn't solve the main issue.°

°Did you know that there is a vanishing cabinet in Hogwarts?° Harry asked after a few moments of thinking on how people had gotten in an out of Hogwarts in his dimension.

°No,° Voldemort said, finally dragging his attention away from the plan of Hogwarts to focus on Harry.

°In my sixth year Draco Malfoy let your Death Eaters in through that. I'm not quite sure where it was before he moved it to the Room of Requirement, but the counterpart should be at Borgin and Burkes. The pair is broken though.°

°If he used it like that in your sixth year it is possible none of the Order know of it, since that was after our time lines diverged,° Voldemort mused not really paying attention to Harry anymore as he went over the new possibilities in his mind.

°I'll tell you if I remember where it used to be in my dimension,° Harry offered.

°Do that,° Voldemort agreed. Then he added, °Severus managed to legilimize Molly and Arthur Weasley. He says from Mrs. Weasley’s memory she was the one to attempt to kill you.°

Harry could see how that made sense. She was always very protective of her children and in this dimension he wasn’t her surrogate son. Though he hoped she had been as kind to the Harry in this dimension as his Molly had been to him. Not that that stopped him from being incredibly mad at her.

°Allow me to get revenge on her?° he asked.

°If it is in my power. You can come along when we raid Hogwarts,° Voldemort agreed.

°Thank you,° Harry said.

°Do you still need the Reveal-All?° Voldemort added as an afterthought.

Harry thought for a moment.

°No,° he began slowly, °since I’m not trying to bring her in front of a court, I don’t need all the shreds of proof I can get.°

* * *

As he hurried through the castle Severus sincerely hoped that his time as a double agent was coming to a close. The last weeks had been stressful. The Order preparing to raid Diagon Alley and the Dark Lord speeding up his plans for the invasion of Hogwarts in response made for a rather large workload. The Order expected Severus to monitor the Dark Lord which meant he was exercising his ability to creatively bend the truth. The bigger strain on his time was that both sides expected him to stock up potions in preparation, without reducing his regular brewing. The Dark Lord hat told him that he also expected him to look for a vanishing cabinet Potter had mentioned as a means to get a team inside the castle.

Severus did not know where he would find the hours in the day to do that. He couldn’t ask for help, not even the house-elves. And despite residing in the castle for years he was not the marauders nor the Weasley twins with that infernal map of the castle. Apparently, Potter could trick the thing, but that wasn’t useful to Severus now. Maybe he could borrow the map. Everyone knew of it by now. Arthur Weasley had been blatantly thinking about it when Severus legilimized him. And those trouble makers never would have told their father of the map if they had a choice, Severus was sure. But then again Arthur hadn’t been thinking so much of the map as of ways to escape the castle. All of which were useless because the Order knew of them. Except maybe the broken ones that they wouldn’t expect to be usable like whatever was mangling that sausage…

Abruptly, Severus stopped in the middle of the entrance hall, turned around and hurried back to his rooms. Once there, he got comfortable on his couch and focused his mind on the memory of legilimizing Arthur: He had met his eyes and slipped into Arthur’s mind. The Weasley father had been thinking of ways to escape the castle. First secret passages and then. There. He thought of a cabinet with a disappearing and reappearing sausage. Every iteration it returned more mangled. Severus focused harder hoping to locate the cabinet. He knew that portrait of the wine cellar he could see in the memory. Where was it? Not near the kitchens like most of the food paintings. He saw it more regularly than that. But where? Ah! It was near the first floor men’s. By a set of stairs that went straight to a location near the kitchens by-passing the floors in-between completely. Luckily, it was evening so that area was fairly deserted at the moment. That meant he could go straight there.

Once he go there, he cast a few spells to confirm that he was alone. Carefully, he determined, that, yes, it was a vanishing cabinet and, yes, it was broken. After casting a slew of monitoring spells to assure himself a free path he gently levitated the cabinet back to his rooms. He would attempt to fix it when he had time.

As it turned out, a week of snatched half hours was not enough time to fix the cabinet. Severus knew that now. Hopefully, the Dark Lord would believe him. You never knew when his new found tolerance would come to an abrupt end.

“My Lord,” Severus gave his customary greeting with a bow.

“Severus, report,” Lord Voldemort demanded.

“I’ve brought the batch of potions you asked for,” at this Severus handed over a satchel, “I haven’t managed the ones lower on my priority list, yet. The Order has been keeping me equally busy with brewing…”

“You need to maintain your cover of loyalty to them,” the Dark Lord dismissed Severus concerns with a wave of his hand.

“My Lord,” Severus bowed his head and continued his report. “The Order has narrowed down their plan of attack. I’ve included the details in the satchel I just gave you.” Severus paused to let his Lord flip through the report. “I fear that if we are too well prepared for this attack it may blow my cover.”

“I will take that into account,” Lord Voldemort confirmed gesturing for Severus to continue.

“In other news, I have located the vanishing cabinet at Hogwarts and moved it to my quarters. While it is broken, the only issue is a slight malfunction of the stability enchantments,” Severus said.

“Very good. Can you repair it?” Voldemort asked. He’d rather not attempt to smuggle anyone into Hogwarts, but maybe Augustus Rookwood could aid Severus from afar.

“I think it is within my capabilities,” Severus replied succinctly.

“Is it possible to fix it before the 24th?” That way the Diagon Alley raid could be avoided completely and such a blow to the Order before Christmas would be good for morale.

“If you allow me to focus on fixing the cabinet and neglect my brewing for you, I think I can have it working within the week,” Severus confirmed.

That would mean the cabinet would be fixed by the 14th. They could plan the raid for the 19th so there would be enough buffer before Christmas to take care of the urgent aftermath but not enough time for the Order to regroup for a Christmas raid – provided Voldemort’s forces managed to take Hogwarts. Voldemort had already bought the other half of the cabinet-pair form Borgin so that was taken care of. A strike team would need to be prepared to send into Hogwarts and disable the wards. Maybe if he put Harry on the team he would be willing to convince Angel to support the attack? The Order certainly wouldn’t expect that…

“Very good,” Voldemort looked at Severus. “Focus on the cabinet as much as you can. I can have others brew potions for me. Report to me next week as always.” That would give him enough time to assemble the attack if Severus was successful, as long as he had a plan ready.

“My Lord,” Severus bowed.

* * *

“How are you Mr. Potter?” Healer Davis had the decency to address the question to Harry and not to Voldemort.

°Fine, except that I still can’t speak,° Harry said.

And that was the truth. Physically speaking. Regular meals, a real bed and the potions Healer Davis had prescribed had done wonders. However, Harry was becoming increasingly frustrated with his research in the Department of Mysteries. Just yesterday he had been roped into an all day experiment where the unspeakables tried to see if they could pin down his home dimension. Or so they said. To Harry it was more of a case of endless, sometimes invasive questions, his hand cramped from writing and strangers he didn’t quite trust casting spells on him. He simply did not have the expertise needed to truly understand what they were doing. At least towards the end of the day one of the unspeakables had taken mercy on him and explained. Apparently, no one had ever managed to consciously direct the choosing of a dimension as precisely as Harry wanted to. So they were hoping that by using Harry, a native to his home dimension as a guide they would be more successful. It wasn’t looking good. The current belief was that to move dimensions again you would have to be reverse summoned. Not that reverse summoning was considered easy. One of the primary requirements of the ritual to summon somebody in the first place was to for the summonee to prefer the new dimension to the one they were leaving. So the hypothesis was that if the summonee wanted to be in the new dimension in the first place, why would they want to go back enough to be reverse summoned?

Harry sincerely doubted the unspeakables assessment there. He very vehemently did not want to be here and very much wanted to go back home. No one could convince him otherwise. No. One. But the second part of the reverse summoning issue sounded much trickier. In order to summon the correct Harry and not some random other person the ritual requirements had to be set incredibly precisely. Harry could only hope that Hermione would find a solution. She was fantastic at this kind of thing and had his home dimension’s unspeakables, Ron and his other friends as back up. His best friends had always come through for him. He needed to believe they would do so in this as well.

The sound of Voldemort translating his answer to Healer Davis drew him from his thoughts. The Healer nodded in a business like manner.

“Very good,” she said. “I will rerun the tests from last time to catch anything that you may have not noticed. Do you want me to give you the results by topic or all together at the end?”

°All together at the end,° Harry said.

The moment Voldemort had relayed the answer Healer Davis got started, waving her wand at him rapidly and getting information form the spells that Harry had little hope of following. Patiently, he waited for her to finish. He had practice in doing that now.

“You are correct in your assessment Mr. Potter, you are indeed as “fine” as can be expected,” she concluded after a couple of minutes – much faster than the unspeakables. “The potions have done their job, your stomach is back in full working order. You are still a bit thin, but are on track to being back to a healthy weight so keep on as you are. As I told you to expect last time, your blood is still toxic and will remain so since your body produces the toxin. I can’t find any obvious signs of this impacting you negatively. You will need to be careful when you bleed and make sure to inform all your healers. But beyond that I’d only advise regular check-ups so in case any problems crop up we can catch them early.

“And the last bit of good news is that the magical residue around your throat is dissipating at the expected rate. So we can make an appointment to fix your vocal chords in January provided nothing changes. We can check up on your blood toxicity levels at the same time if you like.”

Harry took a moment to process all that information. Slowly he began to smile. At last something was going right.

°Yes,° he said the simile audible even through the hissing of parseltongue. °Let’s make an appointment for January.°


	7. Chapter 7

_It was a quiet crowd that had assembled in the Department of Mysteries ritual room. All of them people who knew Harry personally, at least a little bit. They didn’t want to accidentally summon the wrong person because someone was thinking too much about Harry’s legend and too little about Harry the person. Hermione had felt the need to check obsessively_ _that they were arranged in perfect concentric circles, the entire time calming herself by keeping up a commentary on how muggles thought that arrangement would protect them._ _What nonsense. It was next to impossible to control a summoned being using the summoning ritual itself. That was why there were so many cautionary tales about people thinking they outwitted the summonee only to be stabbed in the back._

_Ron stood at his position in the central circle across from Hermione, who was going to lead the ritual. With them in the central circle were his brothers and parents, Fleur, Luna, Neville, Harry’s auror partner Terrence and Harry’s ex-girlfriend Rhona. The more central the circle you were located in the better you knew Harry – roughly speaking. Ron knew quite a few people disagreed with having Terrence and Rhona in the central circle, but they knew parts of Harry the rest of them didn’t know nearly as well. If Ginny was still around she would have been a better choice than Rhona, but she wasn’t. Ron would defend Hermione’s choice of organizing the people close to Harry to anyone who challenged her. He had spent every evening since last Wednesday discussing options with her. The last thing she needed no_ _w_ _, just before the ritual, was uncertainty. Luckily, people seemed to understand that, so everyone was waiting quietly._

“ _I’m ready,” his brilliant wife declared._

_The already quiet atmosphere tensed to a single minded focus directed at the salt circle. Hermione nodded to herself at their determination._

“ _Start,” she said._

_Ron immediately pointed his wand at the salt circle directing his magic into it while thinking hard about Harry. Harry who had been his best friend since they were first years together. Harry who had always forgiven his stupid moments. Harry who always did the right thing in the end. Harry who always found a reason to keep on going. But also Harry who could blow up spectacularly. Harry who was still not convinced that a lot of his actions were unusual. Harry who had grown hard and unyielding to pleas for second chances since Ginny’s death. Harry in all his facets, Ron’s best friend._

_Ron couldn’t tell if the_ _ritual was in a foreign language or if he was too focused to understand what Hermione was saying._ _But he could tell that the magic around him was reacting, resonating with a feel of Harry Ron couldn’t put in words, building stronger and stronger, focused on the salt circle until it disappeared with a whoosh. Silence filled the room as every single person there waited to see if they_ _had_ _succeed._

* * *

Harry was torn. They were finally attacking the Order in their strong hold. While he had no love left for the local Order and was really looking forward to getting a shot at Molly Weasley, he still hadn't quite processed the fact that he was fighting for Voldemort. Well, it was too late to back out now. Voldemort had had a basic plan of action for a very long time, the only thing it had been missing was for a way past the wards to send an infiltration team into the castle, while the main force attacked from the front. With Snape having found and fixed the vanishing cabinet at Hogwarts and it’s counterpart moved to an unused safe house in the middle of a forest, they were all ready to go. That was where Harry was now with the rest of the infiltration team: Three marked Death Eaters and five unmarked aurors.

“Everyone aware of the plan?” Rookwood asked. As one of the senior Death Eaters and a scary fighter he was in charge of this team.

“Yes,” was chorused back at him.

“Very well,” Rookwood said, “Potter don’t forget to send the signal when you reach the entrance hall.”

Harry who had long entered work mode to push aside his mixed feelings nodded sharply, tapping a bracelet with the Dark Mark, just as it heated up – the signal to go. Immediately all nine of them were on alert, the Death Eaters notified through their marks and the aurors through their bracelets like Harry’s. As one they turned to the vanishing cabinet while applying a not-here-tag to themselves. The woman closest to the cabinet stepped through first. Silently the rest of the team followed. They arrived in a modified toilet stall, meaning the toilet had been removed and the vanishing cabinet placed there instead. Stepping out of the stall Harry recognized the bathroom as Moaning Myrtle’s with the ghost girl tethered to the toilet in the stall across from the cabinet. She was staring at them in horror attempting to shout but no sound came out. Silenced, too, then. As Voldemort had organized a very convenient entry location for them, Harry stepped over to the broken sink.

°Open,° he hissed making the aurors jump and the Death Eaters look at him as the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets rumbled open.

“No time to stare,” Rookwood growled at them quietly, “we need to get going.”

This time there was no chorus of “yes” but only sharp nods all around.

Harry ignored them and jumped down the pipe hissing a °close° as he went. This way into the Chamber of Secrets definitely did not improve over time, the pipe was still as slimy as ever. Harry hurried past the cave in and into the main chamber.

°Angel, are you around?° he shouted.

°Harry!° came the overjoyed voice of the basilisk, °You came back.°

°I did,° Harry agreed, °I need your help. I want to attack those that poisoned me. Voldemort already is helping me with his people but if you could help as well that would be great. I’ve also found a place for you to stay outside Hogwarts if you want.°

°You did? I knew it was a good idea to trust you. Of course I’ll help,° Angel said in delight and continued without pause, °Why do you smell a bit like Voldemort? You didn’t when you came here last.°

Giving her question a moment of thought he held out his bracelet to her, °Is this where Voldemort’s scent is coming from?°

°Yes,° Angel bobbed her head excitedly.

‘That makes things so much easier,’ Harry thought.

°Angel, I will need to blindfold you once we leave the Chamber of Secrets, so you don’t kill any of our allies accidentally. You can tell them from the people that poisoned me by scent. If they don’t smell a bit like Voldemort they are poisoners, OK?° he instructed the snake.

°Okay,° Angel agreed cheerfully.

°Good, now can you take me to the exit closest to the  g reat  h all?°

°Great  h all?°

°Where the humans eat.°

°Oh! The feeding room. Follow me,° Angel said slithering off leaving Harry to hurry after her.

°Here it is,° Angel announced after a few minutes of navigating the twists and turns of Hogwarts plumbing. Thank goodness the section  Angel used was very high and not used for its intended purpose. Harry carefully squeezed past her to the exit.

°I’m going to cover your eyes now,° he told Angel conjuring a large piece of black cloth. Obediently Angel brought her head closer to Harry allowing him to tie the improvised blindfold around her head. Once he convinced himself it was secure he made an educated guess as to the password of the exit.

°Open,° Harry watched satisfied, wand ready, as the wall in front of him moved to the side. Taking a few steps forward he peered out of he exit to see where they were. It took him a moment, but then he recognized the little antechamber where McGonagall had made the first years wait before the sorting.

°Follow me, and don’t attack until I tell you to,° he told Angel quietly. Picking up on the importance of stealth Angel’s hissed answer of °yes° was even quieter. As silently as possible Harry walked through the room Angel following exactly in his footsteps thus cleverly avoiding hitting any furniture. Just as Harry reached the door that should lead to the entrance hall he remembered the open passageway.

°Wait a moment,° he told Angel and walking back to the passageway exit hissed, °close.° With a rumble of stone the exit did exactly that.

°Angel, when I call you, follow me and attack anyone that doesn’t smell like Voldemort, okay?°

°Yesss!° came the excited reply.

Soundlessly, Harry stepped up to the door again and traced the frame with his wand. The spell he cast modified the door so that it would open both ways. Handy for situations exactly like this one where one group was wanting to ambush those on the other side and didn’t want to loose precious seconds pulling open the door. Conveniently, it would also allow Angel to just push the door open when he called for her. Tapping his Dark Mark bracelet three times in rapid succession he sent a signal to his team informing them that he had arrived at the entrance hall with Angel.

Disillusioning and silencing himself he cautiously poked his head and wand hand out the door. A quick “homenum revelio” told him the entrance hall didn’t only look empty but was empty. Good. If they were lucky that meant that the rest of the infiltration team hadn’t been discovered yet. Either way it meant that Harry could safely slide out of the room and position himself across the hall where he would have a good view of both the grand staircase, entrance doors and corridors leading to the entrance hall. A perfect position to ambush any Order members crossing the hall. Harry was hoping to pick off as many as he could before they arrived in a group large enough that he would be spotted and forced to call Angel for help. He had no illusions that he could adhere to an incapacitate-only policy and survive.

He was in position for a few minutes when “GONG!” the sound of the advance forces attacking Hogwarts’ wards resonated through the castle.

“Attention!” boomed Dumbledore’s voice barely a second after the after the noise had died down. “Report to your defensive,” “GONG!” “posts. We are under attack!”

Harry could hear foot steps running towards the entrance hall. McGonagall and Flitwick coming down the grand staircase he easily recognized, the thin, dark haired man arriving from the dungeons not so much. With patience won from years of practice he bid his time. “GONG!” The trio hurried faster. The moment their backs were turned on him he fired.

“Avada kedavra,” he thought hard three times in rapid succession. So fast in fact that before the first curse had hit it’s target, Flitwick who was slower due to his short legs, the second and third curse were already on their way. “GONG!” Covered the sound of Flitwick’s body hitting the floor. But it didn’t matter. The other two were hit before the thump could have been heard.

Not wasting any time Harry summoned Flitwick’s body to himself, disillusioned it and banished it to a corner. He managed to do the same to McGonagall and was about to get to the unknown man when “GONG!” the noise of the wards being attacked obscured the sound of the newest arrival – Moody. 

Lightning fast he pointed his wand at Moody and shot another acid green killing curse at the ex-auror. Having seen the corpse Moody was not taken by surprise and evaded the curse by a hair's breadth. Immediately he fired a bright yellow curse back at Harry, his magical eye not fooled by Harry’s disillusionment. Suppressing the urge to curse Harry jumped out of the way of the malicious spell while shooting a rotting curse at Moody’s wooden leg.

“Attacking from the shadows, eh?” Moody shouted over another earsplitting “GONG!” while dodging. “That might have gotten Lewis but not me!”

An orange streak of light speed towards Harry from his right, a couple more spells cast by the arriving Order members missed him by a wide margin. Hastily he summoned McGonagall's corpse into the path of the orange spell. She exploded in a shower of gore, the disillusionment failing under the strain of the spell. Moody startled at the violent impact of the curse allowing Harry to “GONG!” sneak in a bone breaker. Seeing the spell coming Moody dove out of the line of fire but he wasn’t fast enough, the spell hit his good leg. To buy himself some time to get off the floor Moody cast a shield spell and several of the new arrivals sent spells in the general direction of Harry’s last known position, who had long since moved. In full sprint he cast a killing curse at Moody this time hitting him full on shield or no shield. 

Harry did not stop running until he was halfway around the hall, disillusionment and silencing spells hiding his position. Taking a moment to catch his breath he evaluated the situation. As soon as he cast a spell the defenders would know where he was and fire at him. If he waited too long someone would cast a “homenum revelio”, find out where he was and fire at him. Or worst case “GONG!” they would form a team to seal the doors and a team to defend as they were doing now. A small group had turned towards the doors and the rest had formed an outward facing circle to defend them.

Thinking quickly Harry summoned Flitwick’s corpse. It’s flight path made it crash into the sealing team from the left disrupting their spell. As Harry had hoped the defenders all turned towards the invisible obstacle allowing Harry to shoot a blasting curse at the floor beneath the sealing teams feet, throwing them into further disarray.

Unfortunately, more people were arriving in the entrance hall by the minute, one of whom had seen from where the spell came. Again Harry had to run from his position to ensure that he didn’t get hit by enemy fire. He was aided by the loud “GONG!” followed by an ominous “KRIK!” sound signifying the wards straining under the Death Eater’s attack. A “BANG!” loud like a gun firing echoed through all of Hogwarts as the wards fell.

The Order refocused on securing the doors, with a large group shooting spells into Harry’s general vicinity meaning he had to focus on evading the spells and random debris caused by explosions and didn’t have time to attack the sealing team.

°Angel, now!° Harry called his voice amplified by a “sonorus” instead of silenced.

A gigantic basilisk bursting out of the side chamber certainly provided a great distraction but wasn’t enough to stop the sealing team.

°Straight ahead of you. Get them,° Harry directed her towards the sealing team. The spells shot at her by the defenders did little to deter her. Especially since they were careful not to accidentally disintegrate her blindfold. It did mean that the sealing team was out of the way by the time Harry directed her to bite down. However, the sealing of the doors was disrupted and that was all he needed. With the attention on Angel he snuck closer to the sealing team. Taking careful aim he shot a killing curse at one of the members. His target evaded the spell but the defender behind her was not so lucky. His position given away again Harry had to avoid several incoming spells, finally having to shield against one. The caster of that spell quickly followed up catching Harry with a flaying spell. Luckily, the spell wasn’t very powerful only removing the skin in the immediate vicinity of where it hit his leg, but it broke his disillusionment.

°Angel, follow me!° Harry shouted buying himself the moment he needed to get into the great hall while his attackers tried to fend her off. His job in the entrance hall was done anyway, Harry thought with a self satisfied smirk as he heard the entrance doors being blown open.

* * *

Molly arrived in the entrance hall just in time for her to see that man, the man who had killed her Bill, run into the great hall a gigantic basilisk guarding his retreat. Resolutely, she tightened her grip on her wand, disillusioned herself and ran after him. Now she would finally have the chance to rectify her earlier mistake. The basilisk was thoroughly distracted by the other Order members firing spell after spell at it so Molly could slip into the great hall unnoticed. Upon seeing the scene that greeted her she almost faltered in her determination to kill her Bill’s murderer. Only a small number of people had made it past the basilisk, but the hand full that had made it were all engaging the murderer. Said murderer was demonstrating why the ritual had deemed him capable of killing Voldemort. Despite being outnumbered the murderer was holding his own. By deflecting spells and keeping close to one of of his attackers at all times he was making it supremely difficult to get in a shot that did not risk hitting an ally. In contrast the murderer’s offensive spells were primarily wide area spells that damaged the surroundings as much as they did his attackers. Stepping out of the path of a stray spell, Molly took careful aim, it wouldn’t do to hit one of her allies. 

Due to her focus on the fight in front of her she failed to noti ce the basilisk. With Voldemort’s main forces streaming into the entrance hall the defenders had been momentarily distracted allowing Angel to follow Harry. She now surveyed the scene before her. Flicking her tongue she could smell Harry and a few poisoners surrounding him. If she attacked those she risked biting Harry instead, since being blind messed up her aim. But luck was on her side. Right in front of her was another poisoner. With a hiss of delight she snapped forward biting down on the poisoner. Molly was dead so fast she never knew what hit her.

* * *

Voldemort entered the castle  with the main body of  his forces. So far his plan of attack was working out well. Harry and the astronomy tower team had prevented the entrance doors from being sealed  and greatly reduced the number of attacks on his army while  they were outside  and without cover . Inside Harry was no where to be seen, but his next job was to secure the  great hall with Angel. Considering  she was headed  there  tha t part of the plan was looking good.  At least r ight up until the moment the back line defenders managed t o  send stunners at her simultaneously.  Angel collapsed with a thud , blocking the way into the  great hall in the process. 

Nonetheless, Harry and Angel had done a lot of damage to the Order’s line of defense. Individual Order members were holding up well against the assault, but most of the defenders were civilians trained by civilians. In contrast, his army was primarily made up of aurors with those of his Death Eaters truly gifted at fighting thrown in. Whatever kind of defense the Order could form was quickly crumbling beneath the coordinated assault.

“Tom!”

Voldemort glanced up the grand stair case.

“Dumbledore,” he replied evenly. They had been at this for way too long for him to be easily riled by Dumbledore’s mind games. 

“Is this really necessary, Tom?”

“I could ask you the same. Attacking innocent by-standers? Risking the lives of children? Ripping someone from their home dimension and then poisoning them when they don’t appreciate it? I think this is necessary.”

A pained look flashed across Dumbledore’s face, but he caught himself quickly and join ed the fray. It was no use though. Dumbledore was only one man, and he couldn’t turn the tide of the battle on his own. His larger than life reputation ensured that every one of the invaders that could spare a moment shot a killing curse at the Headmaster. He couldn’t defend against all of them. In short order the invading force either incapacitated or killed all the Order members in the entrance hall.  From there they spread out in teams of six to track down anyone  elsewhere in the castle and dismantle any traps. Voldemort waved over a few of his people helping with securing the prisoners.

“On my count of three shoot an ‘rennervate’ at the basilisk,” he ordered.

The men and women exchanged uneasy glances but pointed their wands at the serpent.

“One, two, three – rennervate!”

The red bolts hit Angel simultaneously jolting her out of her enforced unconsciousness. She immediately reared up and lunged for something in the great hall.

“Return to your previous tasks,” Voldemort dismissed his helpers. In a few quick strides he entered the great hall behind Angel. He found Harry battling two witches and a wizard lying on the ground just returning to consciousness. Voldemort killed the man before he could interfere with the fight drawing attention to himself. The shorter of the two witches immediately sent a purple curse his way. Voldemort easily side stepped the curse and sent a curse of his own at her. He had as little luck as the witch had had, but Harry had used the short distraction to finish off his opponent and continue on to curse the one focused on Voldemort in the back. 

°Excellent work, Harry,° Voldemort told him, °all that is left is clean-up.° He took a moment to look around. There were a few more bodies, two with obvious bite marks one of which had a head full of red hair. Flicking his wand, Voldemort levitated the body up to see the face. 

°It looks like Angel got to Mrs. Weasley before you could,° he mused.

°Ah, too bad,° Harry replied then turned to Angel, °Thank you.°

The basilisk hissed in pleasure.

°Now we round up the remaining Order members?°

°Yes. Hopefully this will be the last we see of this resistance.°

°That’s way too optimistic.°

°I shall hope for the best and plan for the worst, like always.°

* * *

Harry was not involved in the clean up after the attack on Hogwarts. Molly Weasley was dead and  the Order defeated, that was enough for him. Instead he was getting Angel comfortable in her new home in the forest near where Voldemort lived. A win-win situation. Angel could finally explore a new area and not hide under the school and Voldemort got an extra dangerous guard pet. Harry wondered how long Voldemort would put up with him in his house. At some point he had to get fed up with Harry living off him,  b ut for now Voldemort didn’t bring it up so Harry stayed silent. 

Idly , Harry watched  Angel slither across the forest floor  studying her new home . It was surprisingly peaceful,  far away from people that reminded him of how he couldn’t speak to anyone but snakes and Voldemort. Angel was much less demanding now she was convinced he wouldn’t leave her all alone under the school.

°They don’t all run away from me!° Angel exclaimed excitedly curling around Harry.

°Who is they?° Harry asked amused.

°The animals. At Hogwarts the animals in the forbidden forest always hid the moment they realized I was out hunting.°

°I’m sure you can scare this forest into submission, too,° he replied.

°Yes! But hunting is much harder then,° she agreed.

° Y ou are up to the task, I’ m sure.°

°Of course I am!°

A familiar tug around Harry’s mid section interrupted them. It felt like a port key but went on forever.

‘Please let it be Ron and Hermione. Please let it be Ron and Hermione. Please let it be home. Please let it be them,’ Harry thought fervently as the tug went on and on. Finally, he slammed onto hard ground, still in the same sitting position he had been summoned from. Many familiar faces stared at him, none more so than Hermione who was right in front of him. 

“Harry?” she asked.

Harry nodded.

“Our Harry?”

Harry shrugged. He hoped this was his Hermione but didn’t know yet. At least this time there were no people around that were supposed to be dead. Slowly, to not startle anyone he pulled his wand out and pointed it at the floor. A practiced swishing motion and a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink appeared. He wrote out: “If you were trying to summon a Harry Potter back then I might be.”

Hermione read the parchment, then looked at him critically.

“Did Dolohov manage to injure you after all?”

Harry shook his head and wrote some more: “I was in battle mode from chasing Dolohov when I left. Got hit by a cutting curse to the throat on the other side. The Healer said it can be fixed soon.”

“Good,” Hermione said, then she repeated, “it really is you? The Harry that was summoned away?”

“Date I left?” Harry wrote out. He paused a moment, then added, “and today?”

“You disappeared on the 12.07.2004. Today is two weeks later so 31.07.2004,” Hermione answered promptly.

The 12 th was the day he had left his home dimension. And he had been chasing down Dolohov. Slowly Harry began to smile.

“Oh, Harry. I’m so glad that worked,” Hermione knelt down and hugged him, “I was so worried that you might not want to come back because of Ginny.” Harry snorted. Nothing could have made him stay in that dimension. No matter how reasonable the local Voldemort was.

“That’s what I told her,” Ron joined them from behind. “Anyway, how do you get yourself into these kind of things?”

Harry shrugged. It did little to dislodge the two, but it wasn’t meant to either. For the moment he just wanted to bask in the presence of  the two best friends  he could wish for, in any dimension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thats it. Harry is home now, the rest is up to your imagination.  
> Thank you to everyone who showed their appreciation, especially those of you that reviewed.  
> And once again thanks to my betas Slytherclaw and KaGoGoGadgetMe for helping me improve this story.


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